The Mission
by TMFan89
Summary: Tony and Michelle fic set after season 2, better summary inside. Please R&R.
1. Chapter 1: Not A Good Idea

_Hey this is a Tony/Michelle fic set__ about 3-4 years after season 2 and it ignores the other seasons. This does sort of follow on from my other fic, which is no where near finished but real life got in the way and I must do it but I got into this one…anyway you don't need to have read it as I will explain the main points quickly. Basically Tony and Michelle get together after season 2, shocking I know. Tony has a son called Tim who he had when he was a lot younger. Tim is 16 in this story and previously lived with his mother Amy in England but he now lives with Tony and Michelle, since Amy died about 3 years ago (won't tell you what happened yet though) That's the main thing, there are a few others but they will come up in the story without me needing to explain (hopefully). Also to start with most of the story will be in the form of flashbacks which I have put in italics. Last thing is that the chapters are kind of broken down into 3 parts, to start with you have what happens to Tony during the chapter and his thoughts etc. then Tim and then Michelle. Hopefully that all made sense and I didn't ramble on too much. Probably easiest to read it then you should get the idea of the format. Oh one more thing I don't own fox, 24 etc. but Tim and the other characters that don't appear on the show are my creation. So enjoy and feel free to R&R._

**Chapter 1 – Not a good idea**

This had never been a good idea and Tony was the first to admit this, he wasn't even sure how he'd been manipulated into doing this but he had. Somehow Chappelle had managed to get Tim to argue against him, to persuade him to do this. He knew Chappelle couldn't care less about Tim, that he was using Tim to change his mind. And then Michelle had agreed to it he really didn't have a choice, they were both going and either he could join them or they'd find a replacement. He couldn't let them go nor could he make them stay so he had compromised with himself that he would go. He glanced over at Michelle who was focused on the men in front of them, but obviously noticed his eyes on her as she looked over to him. He then looked towards Tim who was bound to the chair, he should never have let this happen...he couldn't lose them. Turning his head back he tried to remember how Chappelle had conned him into this.

_It was two weeks ago today when he got the call._

"_Almeida," He answered_.

"_Mr Almeida your son Tim is here,"_

_"Right send him up," He said wondering what Tim would be doing here. He watched as Tim entered, still wearing his basketball kit, but covering the top with a black Nike hoody. His bag, with the rest of his clothes in and no doubt only one of the four books he was supposed to take in for his lessons today, hung over his right shoulder. Tim wasn't exactly tall for his age but more of an average height, he was now about the same height as Michelle but he knew he'd overtake Michelle soon and no doubt himself. As he stayed looking at Tim who greeted Michelle with a hug, he noticed that Tim had obviously not decided to have a shower after his practise, seen as his hair wasn't exactly in place and strands stuck out slightly all over his head but to be honest it didn't look much different to when he styled it. His hair wasn't as blond as it had been; now it was more of a dirty blond colour but it would definitely never be as dark as his own hair or curly. It wasn't as short as it used to be either, but still shot enough to gel it up. Just then Michelle walked off while Tim stood there. He just watched as Tim looked around, his skin complexion might have been one of the only things Tim had inherited off him; the eyes were definitely Amy's. Instead of the dark brown Tim's eyes were a deep blue. The love for sports and muscular physic which allowed him to pursue it he'd inherited from both his parents. Eventually Tim's gaze met with his and he motioned to Tim to come up, still wondering what he was doing here. But at the moment any distraction was a good distraction, especially after this day from hell. _

"_Hey," Tim said as he walked in._

"_Hey so what are you doing here?" He asked, "Shouldn't you be at some end of term party or something?"  
_

"_It's not the end of term; it's the end of half a term…I'm only on holiday for two weeks,"_

"_Sounds like a reason to celebrate, no more school…" He wished he still had holidays like that, you never appreciate them until they're gone._

_"For two weeks then its hell until exams joy," Tim told him while he laughed._

"_So what are you doing here then?"_

_"Forgot my keys," Tim said looking to the floor._

"_You want mine then," He said getting them from his desk._

"_Na it's fine Michelle just went to get hers for me,"_

"_Right, so how are you getting home?"_

"_Uh…yeah I haven't exactly thought it through," Tim smiled which he laughed at._

"_Well give me bout 20 minutes and I'll give you a lift ok,"  
_

"_Yeah thanks dad but you don't have to,"_

_"Don't worry, anyway I need to get out of this place," He told him. Chappelle had__ been on at him all day about the stupid mission and he'd already told Chappelle they would find another in. One of their agents, Will, had been killed last night and Chappelle was already pissed off at him, blaming him for it. He had told Chappelle that it wasn't their fault and that it was a rushed job so obviously this Mr Landon was going to know Will wasn't who he said he was. They had both yelled until he had left, telling Chappelle there would be another way and he could find it himself as he was obviously so desperate to arrest this guy._

"_Ok," Tim said turning his head to look out the window._

"_Just go wait in the situation room I'll be down as soon as I can,"  
_

"_Ok,"  
_

"_And tell Michelle I'll be ready to leave in 20 minutes,"  
_

_"Will do," Tim said as he left._

* * *

Ok so his dad was right this was not a good idea and Tim had no idea why he thought it would have been. Again his dad was right, Chappelle had manipulated him to get what he wanted, and he wished he could tell his dad how sorry he was but the masking tape on his face was preventing his speech. He saw his dad look at Michelle, both of them bound to the floor, guards pointing guns at their heads and their mouths covered. He on the other hand was bound to a chair, no doubt because he would break easiest. Tim saw the cut on his dads head drip, the blood narrowly avoiding his eye as it slid down his face. Ok so he did know why he'd done it. 

"_Tim," She breathed again as moved her lower body. He put his hands back on her arms as he guided her down towards him. She kissed him again and again as she pushed him further into her. _

Tim blinked away the images of last night; it was his fault, his fault this had happened. It had been going well so far but then last night happened. Why the hell had he even agreed to this in the first place? He didn't get time to think as Paul walked over to him, his dark curls hiding most of the bruise across his face. Suddenly Paul pulled back his fist and then smashed it into him again and again. For a skinny guy he really did have a lot of power but he didn't have time to dwell on the fact as he heard his dad and Michelle screaming but then everything went dark.

_It was two weeks ago when he had said yes, when he had forced them to come. He'd forgotten his keys even though he'd promised that he had them in the morning. So he'd gotten a lift from Joe's mum to CTU. He told her to go and that he'd be fine, she hadn't argued since she had to get Joe's younger sister from the babysitter. He waited for a moment as the security guard phoned someone._

"_Mr Almeida your son Tim is here,"__ She hung up after a few more moments saying nothing else as she grabbed a security pass._

"_He says to go on up I'm sure you know your way by now," She said as she handed him the pass._

"_Yeah thanks," He said and headed to the doors. As soon as he reached the main floor he spotted Michelle who he walked over to and hugged._

"_Hey," She said as she pulled back, "What you doing here?"_

"_Forgot my keys," He said._

"_I thought you said you had them this morning,"  
_

"_Yeah I did but I guess didn't," He smiled._

"_Look stay here I'll go get mine but don't interrupt your dad he's not in the best mood today," She told him._

"_How come?"  
_

"_Chappelle," Sh__e replied as she walked off. He just stood there looking around while he waited for her to come back. When he looked up at his dad's office he motioned for him to come up. Although Michelle had told him not to, his dad would probably be angrier if he didn't. _

"_Hey," H__e said as he walked in._

"_Hey so what are you doing here?" His dad asked, "Shouldn't you be at some end of term party or something?" He knew his dad never listened when he told him.  
_

"_It's not the end of term; it's the end of half a term…I'm only on holiday for two weeks,"_

"_Sounds like a reason to celebrate, no more school…" _

"_For two weeks then its hell until exams joy," He interrupted while his dad just laughed. At least he'd have this break to relax._

"_So what are you doing here then?"  
_

"_Forgot my keys," He said looking to the floor, hoping he wasn't too mad from Chappelle._

"_You want mine then," His dad said as he searched his desk._

"_Na it's fine Michelle just went to get hers for me,"_

"_Right, so how are you getting home?"_

"_Uh…yeah I haven't exactly thought it through," He smiled which his dad laughed at._

"_Well give me bout 20 minutes and I'll give you a lift ok,"  
_

"_Yeah thanks dad but you don't have to," He said, he didn't want his dad to put himself out for him. He could walk or get the bus if he needed to.  
_

"_Don't worry anyway I need to get out of this place," His dad told him._

"_Ok,"__ He said turning his head to look out the window. He saw Michelle look at him and knew what she would say but it's not like he could have stayed down there while his dad told him to come up._

"_Just go wait in the situation room I'll be down as soon as I can," His dad told him.  
_

"_Ok,"  
_

"_And tell Michelle I'll be ready to leave in 20 minutes,"  
_

"_Will do," He said as he left. He walked down and got another look from Michelle as he came to stand by her._

"_So you're death as well as forgetful," She said handing him the keys._

"_He saw me and motioned for me to come up it's not like I couldn't," He said in defence._

"_Ok," She said looking up and smiling at his dad._

"_He said he'd give me a lift in 20 minutes and he'd be ready to go then," He told her earning himself another look from Michelle, "Honest Chelle I told him he didn't need to," _

"_Yeah ok. So how was he?" She asked._

"_Seemed alright," He replied. He had no idea why she was so worried about him. He didn't seem angry or mad like he usually was after he'd had a day of encounters with Chappelle._

"_Ok I better go talk to him," She said, "Um you can wait here or…"  
_

"_Dad said situation room…" He said as she walked away_

_"Uh yeah sure," She said obviously not really caring as she went to find his dad. Tim wasn't even sure if she'd heard the last part. _

* * *

"You think you can fool me," Paul yelled as he struck Tim for what must have been the tenth time. Michelle sat there horrified tears filling her eyes, she was trained not to show emotion, she was an agent but this was Tim. He was only a kid, her stepson and she couldn't stop herself. She looked to Tony, she couldn't watch but he was staring at Paul, what he was doing to his son. She knew he was hurting more then he probably had before. She should have said no, not agreed to it. Tony was right and she would never forgive herself if they all didn't get out of this ok. 

_She had just finished updating her system as she looked up and saw Tim walk in. He headed for her and hugged her. What was he doing here; he was supposed to go home after his basketball practise?_

"_Hey," She said as she pulled back, "What you doing here?"_

"_Forgot my keys," He said._

"_I thought you said you had them this morning," She said, she knew he hadn't but Tony had told her to forget about it.  
_

"_Yeah I did but I guess didn't," He smiled. She smiled herself; he did always keep her entertained._

"_Look stay here I'll go get mine but don't interrupt your dad he's not in the best mood today," She told him. Well that was putting it mildly. Chappelle had been on at Tony all day for Will's death. But it wasn't his fault, it was Chappelle's rushed planning and Tony had made that clear on day one. What didn't help was Will was one of Tony's friends; they'd been in the marines together. She'd tried to talk to him but apparently he was too busy with work to talk. She knew he was just hiding his emotions and let him have his space; she'd talk to him at home._

"_How come?" Tim asked.  
_

"_Chappelle," She replied as she walked off. She didn't want to say anymore until she'd talked to Tony. She grabbed her keys__ from her bag in the break room but when she walked out she bumped into Chappelle._

"_Michelle,"  
_

"_Yes Ryan," She said.__ This better be quick._

"_I'm still trying to find another in for the new operation so I need some space to work,"  
_

"_Uh yeah sure the situation room should be free," She said trying to walk away._

"_And Michelle,"  
_

"_Yes?"  
_

"_I'll need some more co-operation from certain members of staff if this is to turn out better then last time,"  
_

"_When you say members of staff you mean Tony," She stated, Ryan Chappelle was not subtle to say the least._

"_Well yes," He told her._

"_I will talk to him but he told you the mission would never work when you started it, there wasn't enough time…"  
_

"_If we hadn't sent Agent Carter in then__ we would have missed our opportunity…"  
_

"_There would have been others," She said angrily._

"_Well now we have to find one and fast…"  
_

"_You know this would be a lot easier if division told us why they wanted this guy so badly," She told him._

"_Well I'm not __at liberty to say," He told her._

"_Fine Ryan I will talk to Tony now can I go?"  
_

"_Of course, just make sure no one interrupts me" He said and with that she turned and headed back. When she reached her station she couldn't see Tim. She looked around and then up to see him glance in her direction. A few minutes later he stopped in front of her._

"_So you're death as well as forgetful," She said handing him the keys._

"_He saw me and motioned for me to come up it's not like I couldn't," He said in defence._

"_Ok," She said looking up and smiling at Tony._

"_He said he'd give me a lift in 20 minutes and he'd be ready to go then," Tim told her, again she looked at him. This was not a good time for Tim to be asking things from his dad, "Honest Chelle I told him he__ didn't need to," _

"_Yeah ok. So how was he?" She asked._

"_Seemed alright," He replied. _

"_Ok I better go talk to him," She said, "Um you can wait here or…" She started but saw Tony who looked like he was on the phone to Chappelle so she hurried off, Tim would be fine. He said something else but she wasn't sure what._

"_Uh yeah sure," She said as she went to find Tony._


	2. Chapter 2: Bad Day

_Hey thanks for all the reviews, here is chapter 2 enjoy. Just to warn you the chapters start to get quite a bit longer from here onwards__ and there should be some fluff in a few chapters time. Also in Tim's section there's a conversation between Chappelle and Hammond, which no one hears but I just needed to put it in for the sake of the plot, it should be pretty obvious where it is though. _

**Chapter 2 – Bad day**

"Talk to me you son of a bitch!" Paul yelled at Tim as he ripped off the masking tape, he was still clearly unconscious. Tony stared at him; he would kill Paul for this. He was beating his son to death right in front of his eyes and there was nothing he could do. This was Chappelle's fault, they were so desperate to get this guy they were willing to sacrifice anyone including his family. He couldn't let this happen. Or was it Chappelle's fault? Tim would never have been there if he hadn't told Michelle not to bother about making sure he had his keys. So it was his fault, if they…he couldn't even think about it but he would never forgive himself for this.

_Tony watched as Michelle climbed the stairs to his office. She arrived just as he slammed down the phone._

"_Son of a bitch," He muttered hoping she wouldn't notice how annoyed he was._

"_Hey," She said walking over to him._

"_Hey," He said as he buried his head in his hands. This day could not get any worse. He stayed like this as he heard Michelle's footsteps around the office, when they stopped he felt her arms wrap around him. She rested her head on his shoulders as she rubbed his arm with one hand while the other arm wrapped securely around his chest._

"_It'll be ok," She whispered into his ear as she kissed his cheek. He said nothing but shook his head; this was not going to be ok._

"_Hey Tony, look at me," She said but he couldn't. He didn't want her to see him like this. He felt her release her grip and then swing the chair round. He felt her arms on his legs and looked to see her brown eyes staring at him. _

"_Talk to me," She said simply. He just sat there not even knowing where to begin; he looked up and wiped his eyes. He just watched as she stood up in front of him. She took his hand and led him over to the couch. Looking around he noticed the blinds were drawn so no one could see, he was so grateful to have her but he just couldn't believe how bad this day had been. _

_Once they reached the couch he sat down and waited for her to join him but she stayed standing. He was about to speak when she said, "Lie,"  
_

"_Chelle," _

"_Lie down Tony," She smiled at him._

"_Fine," He said and did as she had told him. He watched her kneel down beside him and start stroking his hair. _

"_Please talk to me," She said as she continued stroking his hair._

"_I don't even know where to begin," He said taking her free hand and kissing it. No matter what had happened she could always make him feel better._

"_W__ell why don't you start with Will," She said. Will was his friend and now he was dead what else could he say? He hated Chappelle and would always blame him for this, he had told him over and over that this wouldn't work but he hadn't listened, so instead he tried to talk to Will but again he wouldn't listen._

"_Tony," _

"_Sorry," He said realising he hadn't said anything._

"_It's ok, just tell me what you're thinking," She said as she kissed his head._

"_What that I ha__te Chappelle, blame him for Will's death," He said looking at her._

"_Yep," She told him, "You were right and Chappelle is a jerk not to see that,"  
_

"_Well that doesn't change the fac__t that Will's dead," He said bluntly. _

"_I know__…he even wanted to me to talk to you about it," She said, he looked at her asking her what she'd said, "And I told him that you were right, you told him it wouldn't work, that it was a rushed job which was his fault," _

"_Thanks," He said._

"_For what?"  
_

"_Sticking up for me," He told her._

"_Tony I don't need to stick up for you I was stating my opinion that you were right a__nd it was Chappelle's fault Will was killed," She explained._

"_Yeah, I just had __to explain it to his wife," He told Michelle, he'd known Will's wife longer then he'd known Will…yet when he tried to explain how sorry he was, that he'd tried to stop him she'd just yelled at him that it was his fault. That he knew how dangerous it was and should have stopped her husband from going to his death._

"_Oh sweetheart you shouldn't have had to, you should have told me," She said._

"_Well I thought it would be better coming from me but she blamed me for it," He sighed, she did more then that…she said she wished it had been him but she's just upset not like he could blame her._

"_It's not you fault," She said._

"_I shou__ld have stopped him," _

"_You and Will__ are as stubborn as each other and there was no way you could have stopped him," She said, that was true but there must have been a way to stop him going._

"_Yeah look thanks Chelle but I should really finish this work so we can get out of here," He said sitting up._

"_Ok…"  
_

"_We'll talk at home…I just can't do this here," She nodded at him; he knew she understood what he meant. She got up and went to leave but he pulled her back, as he stood up he kissed her hungrily. He needed this if he was to continue, even if it was only for less then an hour. She didn't return it straight away probably slightly surprised but seconds later he felt her tongue enter his mouth and wrestle with his own. After a few minutes he pulled back._

"_Better," She laughed._

"_Yeah," He smiled._

"_Well if this is all I gotta do to make you feel better meet me in the closet in 5 minutes," She smiled which he laughed at.  
_

"_Chelle,"  
_

"_Ok 10," She said._

"_I'll be ok as soon as we get out of here and then you can make me feel better," He said seductively._

"_Guess the bed is more comfortable then the closet," She smiled as she leaned in and kissed him, "Don't be too long," She said as she headed to the door._

"_Oh um can you keep an eye on Tim for me, I sent him to the situation room to keep him out the way," He said opening the blinds._

"_The situation room?" She questioned._

"_Yeah," He said heading to his desk, as he turned round he saw that something was wrong, "What is it?"  
_

"_Um well Chappelle's in there," She said._

"_Jesus," He__ said and headed to the door. Michelle stopped him for a second._

"_Just be calm ok Tim probably went somewhere else," She told him._

"_Yeah let's go," He said as he grabbed the door handle when the phone went. He looked round but he didn't want to get it._

"_You get it I'll go find Tim ok," She said but he didn't say anything, trying to figure out what he should do, "Ok," She said again._

"_Yeah ok," He said and went to answer it._

"_Almeida," He answered._

"_Tony," Oh good Brad Hammond just what he needed._

* * *

Tim could hear voices and he opened his eyes just in time to see the water hit his face. 

"Good," Paul said grabbing a chair and sitting in down in front of him, "Now we can talk,"

"Go to hell," He spat out, his eye was swollen and he was sure the room was moving.

"Tim, you will not last so just do us all a favour and tell me what you are doing here," Paul said.

"I already told you we're on holiday," He said as he tried to focus his vision.

"Tim," Paul said as he stood up and turned round. As Paul turned back he punched him sending him flying to the floor, "Don't lie to me,"

He tried to focus but everything was blurred. It hurt, everything hurt. He couldn't even pin point the pain anymore.

"Tim," Paul said as the room became dark, "Tim talk to me," Then he passed out again.

_Tim headed for the situation room like his dad had told him still wondering what was going on since Michelle was so worried about his dad. Because he was thinking about this he didn't even notice there was someone already in the room, but it wasn't just anyone it was Chappelle. _

"_Uh sorry," He said but his legs weren't moving._

"_What the hell are you playing at?" Chappelle yelled angrily chucking down the file in his hand, "What, does your father think we're running a day care now?"_

"_Look I'm sorry, I__'m going," He said and headed to the door as Chappelle picked up the file._

"_I don't want to see you around…"But something made him stop, that was the moment, the moment Tim wished he could change, "Wait a minute…um…"  
_

"_Tim,"  
_

"_Yeah Tim, come here a minute,"__ Chappelle said as he closed the file. Slowly he moved in, he wasn't sure what to do this guy was yelling at him one minute and now was being civil. Something Tim had heard from his dad was a rarity._

"_So how are you Tim?" Chappelle asked and motioned for h__im to sit down._

"_O__k," He said slightly shocked and wondering if this was some kind of test or something._

"_And how's school?"  
_

"…_Um…it's ok," He said, he had no idea what to do but it seemed best if he just stayed where he was for the moment._

"_Got a girlfriend?" _

"_Uh no… not at the moment," He said very confused at what was going on._

"_Y__ou into sports?"  
_

"_Err yeah," He__ said. Ok this was just weird he would rather be yelled at then this. _

"_So you think what your parents do is cool," Chappelle said._

"_I guess,"  
_

"_You want to work for some place like this when you're older?" Chappelle asked as he opened and closed the file. Tim couldn't see so still had no idea what was going on._

"_I dunno," He said._

"_Right, so how are old are you?" Chappelle asked quickly opening and closing the file again._

"_16," He__ said as he turned to look around, this was just scary now._

"_Ah so if I was to say there was a mission that I could use your help with what would you say?" Ch__appelle asked. So this was why Chappelle was being so nice to him, because he wanted his help. God he had to be desperate if he was asking for his help. It was no secret Chappelle hated him or was it all kids? Whatever it was, if Chappelle was ever about he couldn't even step foot in the place._

"_Um…what kind of mission?" He__ said. Ok so he was interested even if Chappelle did just want him to do something. But it was a mission and even though his mum and dad had both told him they didn't want him getting involved in the job they did he couldn't help it. He knew far more then most kids his age and his curiosity couldn't help but take over._

"_Well to be honest it's just Intel gathering, nothing dangerous but we need a child…I mean a teenager, we couldn't send a child that would be too dangerous since they may give away what was going on," Chappelle explained._

"_What exact__ly is this Intel gathering?" He asked._

"_Well we have been after this man," Chappelle said pulling out a photograph from the file. Tim looked at it, the guy must have been around 50, he had sleek, grey hair pulled back and he looked rich, really rich._

"_Who is he?" He__ asked._

"_His name is Charles Landon," Chappelle said, "And he's a terrorist…I can't tell you anything more about this operation so far as why we need this man, but all you need to know is he's planning something, something big and we know it's going to happen soon," _

"_So what do you want me to do?"  
_

"_Well it's not really you but your __family…"  
_

"_What do you mean?" He__ asked._

"_Mr Landon is holding a two week family holiday thing…"Chappelle said as he fished around for something in the file. Eventually he pulled it out and placed it on the table. Tim looked at it, it was an invite for a Mr H. Sampson and his family._

"_How come you've got this?" He asked._

"_You know I can't tell you that but this Mr H. Sampson will not be attending the event instead he sending his second in command, a Mr T. Niven which is where we come in. We have decided to send in you, Tony and Michelle to play this family. All it is, is basic Intel gathering. But we need you since we can't send in a family without a child now can we?"  
_

"_No bu__t…well this seems harmless," He said as he looked over the invite, "Two weeks for you and your family as a way of saying thank you for helping Landon enterprises,"_

"_That's the whole point Tim," Chappelle said while he just looked confused, "No one would expect this place to be where he was planning his attack would they?"  
_

"_No I guess not but why do you think it is?"  
_

"_Well because our last operation to investigate him told us it would be and also because a lot of the people that are attending are suspected in terrorist activity but you don't need to worry about details like that…all you need to do Tim is say that __you'll do it,"  
_

"_Er I dunno," He__ said, he knew his dad would kill him if he said yes with at least first not talking it over with him._

"_You'll be completely safe, all we want you to do is have a normal holiday, all of you but if you happen to accidentally find out something then we need you to report to us about it," Chappelle said._

"_I guess," He__ said, he wasn't being manipulated was he? And he did want to do this, to be honest he couldn't see the down side. Michelle was saying his dad needed a holiday and this would be two weeks off for all of them and they didn't even really need to do anything. It didn't seem dangerous, of course there were going to be terrorists but if they didn't know who they were then they wouldn't do anything right? Not only that but it was all set up and it was some millionaire paying for it so why should he say no? He also knew that if he talked it over with his dad he'd stop him no matter how safe it was._

"_So can I take that as a yes?" Chappelle said._

"_Um…yeah ok," He said._

"_Right well now we just need to get your parents on board__",_

"_Michelle's my step mum," He said._

"_Still technically your parent,"_

"_Ok, so…"  
_

"_I think what would be best would be if you talk to them about it since I'm sure they'll be more inclined to take part that way. Now just tell them everything I told you ok," Chappelle said._

"_Ok," He said and stayed sitting there._

"_Now I just need to make a few phone calls if you wouldn't mind," Chappelle said indicating to the door._

"_Oh right," He__ said and walked out. He just stood outside waiting, he didn't know what else to do plus Chappelle may want to speak to him again._

* * *

"_Hammond,"  
_

"_Brad it's Ryan,"  
_

"_What do…"  
_

"_I've got an in," He said._

"_Tell me,"  
_

"_The Almeida's," Chappelle said._

"_What about them?"  
_

"_Well you know that invite we got off Sampson when we arrested him,"  
_

"_Yes useless,"  
_

"_Not anymore," Chappelle said._

"_Why not?"  
_

"_You know Tony has a son don't you?"  
_

"_Of course but…"  
_

"_He's sixteen," Chappelle said, "And to be honest this is the best way of getting to Landon without him knowing, we've just not had anyone with the right…qualities before,"  
_

"_You want to send a 16 year old kid in?"  
_

"_All of them, they can pose to be a family, well they are so that will make that part easier, but we'll let Almeida think he's in control, that it's him and Michelle we want to do__ the work and kid's just there as the cover," Chappelle said._

"_Almeida is going to be hard to convince and I don't know if you'll be able to get him believing he's calling the shots,"  
_

"_Well that doesn't matter, as soon as we have Michelle on board he'll say yes just to keep an eye on them," Chappelle said._

"_You have a point so when are you going to approach them, if the kid says no then…"  
_

"_He's already said yes, now we just need Michelle and then Tony will be no problem,"  
_

"_You are really going to have to sell it to her, she's not dumb and she'll know something's up,"  
_

"_I know that's why Tim will sell it to her, I told__ him some things that may sway the decision,"  
_

"_Right well let me know when you have their agreement so we can start work on it,"  
_

"_I will and um Brad I may need your help keeping Almeida out the way while I get Michelle on board,"_

"How so?"

"_Well," Chappelle said and looked up to see the blinds come up in Tony's office, _

"_Call him now and keep him talking for as long as possible," With that he hung up and watched as Tony and Michelle stood by the door of his office until Tony turned around and picked up the phone, things were going to plan so far. He turned slightly and watched from the corner of his eye as Michelle came down the stairs to meet Tim._

* * *

Tim came round again to the feeling of water. 

"Tim start talking now!" Paul yelled yanking him up on the chair. He heard his dad and Michelle trying to speak but Paul was still staring at him, well he couldn't be sure of much since his eyes were opening and closing as if he were about to fall asleep.

"Tim stay with me," Paul said but his head hurt too much, he couldn't take anymore, he'd tell them, tell them anything he just needed it to stop. But before he could speak Paul had moved over to Michelle. He ripped the tape from her mouth which she winced at. Tim was trying his best to focus, to see what was happening but he couldn't prolong the inevitable anymore and closed his eyes.

"_Tim," Michelle called out as she came to stand next to him._

"_Yeah," He said as he turned to face her._

"_Did you?" She asked and indicated to the door, he got the message._

"_Uh yeah sorry but dad said it would be free and I didn't n__otice until I was in there," He said._

"_It's ok. What did he say?" She asked. Tim didn't know where to begin, it was probably best if he talked to her first and that way she could talk to his dad because there was no doubt his dad would say no but if she was coming then he may change his mind._

"_Um…" He started but didn't know where to start._

"_Come with me," She said and led him to the break room. Once they were there she started making __some coffee while he just stood there._

"_So?" She asked._

"_Well he asked me…he wants me to, well all of us to um…go on __an Intel gathering mission," He said. She turned round and instead of yelling no she burst out laughing._

"_Ok I don't care what your dad says about sports I think comedian is the job for you," She smiled as she poured the coffee. She turned back to him and he saw her face change as it clicked that he wasn't joking._

"_You're serious?" She asked as she sat down._

"_Yeah," He nodded._

"_Tim…"  
_

"_Just __hear me out please," _

"_You said yes," _

"_Chelle please just hear me out then you can yell at me," He said as he sat down._

"_Ok," She said but he could read her face by now and it was no._

"_He said that the guy they are after is having some family vacation thing for people and that they have an invite for us, well not for us but you know for us to pretend to be. Basically all he wants us to do is sit around a holiday resort place for 2 weeks and tell him if we hear anything," He explained but she said nothing, "Come on, you have been telling dad he needs a holiday so why not use this, I mean you could spend the whole time in your hotel room if you wanted and claim you haven't heard anything. It's not dangerous it's just passing on information and I mean we may not even hear anything so we get 2 weeks holiday all paid for,"_

"_Ok let me put it to you this way first Chappelle wants you for something otherwise he would have kicked you out the building by now cause we all know how much he likes kids. Second there is something really weird about this mission anyway because we haven't been told what this guy is supposed to be up to, so god knows what we might end up hearing. Third if Chappelle got this invite for us it means we're taking someone's place, someone who has either been killed or they have locked up. Forth…"  
_

"_I get it ok, but Chappelle said he needed me cause it's a family thing and you can't go without a kid. He said that this guy was a terrorist and was planning an attack so if we learnt any info, well that's what we're needed for. Also so what if this invite was for some dead guy or someone they've got locked up, this guy won't have met them before…"  
_

"_Tim if this guy is dead or locked up what does it tell you he does?"  
_

"_Oh…didn't think about that," He said, ok so she had him there and probably on every other point if she got a say._

"_Tim this mission, we don't know much about it so…"  
_

"_Please Chelle, look I promise I'll do as you guys say, I'll stay away from all the guys who are supposed to be bad or whatever. It's a holiday, you and dad both need one so why not now when they'll pay for it and it won't be dangerous if we decide what we do yeah so…"  
_

"_Tim…"  
_

"_Look I'll do chores for a month I promise, I'll do whatever you guys say while we're there. Please," He begged, this had to be working cause if not he had nothing._

"_Tim I dunno," She said rubbing her head. So it was working._

"_Look you and dad can relax together and you know how hard that is for me to say so come on, two weeks at some millionaires place,"__ He said moving closer. She sighed and drank her coffee. He just waited, the trick with Michelle was to let her think and she would say yes, he knew she wanted time alone with his dad however painful the thought was._

"_I guess I could think about it," She said._

"_What's that mean?" He asked impatiently._

"_What do you think Einstein?"  
_

"_Well is it li__ke I'll think about it yes or I'll think about it no way in hell but I'll pretend for a while?" He asked which she laughed at._

"_I think I should talk to Chappelle," She said._

"_Aww no come on please say yes please,"  
_

"_God when did you become five?" She asked._

"_I'm not," He said.  
_

"_Well you do a great impression,"_

"_Haha," He said sarcastically, "So seriously?"  
_

"_Ok I'll will talk to Chappelle and if," She started but stopped as he smiled, "I said if he tells me the same as you and there are no dangers I will agree to it ok, but if there is something you have left out like the fact we're pretending to be mass murderers or I have to hook up with some guy then forget it,"  
_

"_Ok," He smiled, she was gonna agree._

* * *

"Tim stay with me," Paul said but Tim said nothing. Paul finally noticed she and Tony were trying to get his attention and so he walked over to her. He ripped the tape from her mouth which she winced at. Out of the corner of her eye Michelle could see Tim had passed out again, he needed help and she couldn't let him suffer anymore, nor could Tony. This was it she was going to break but not because they were hurting her but someone she loved. 

"Talk to me bitch," He snapped.

"I'll tell you the truth but only if you let Tim go," She said.

"Well let me think about that," He said turning to Tim, "I don't think young Timmy is in any fit state to go anywhere right now so how about we do that talking part where you tell me what's going on or I'll go snap a couple of his fingers," Paul said kneeling down so he was face to face with her. His eyes glowed dark and she could see the full extent of the bruising to his face as his curls no longer covered it.

"Oh we're not so chatty now are we," He said and got up walking over to Tim. He grabbed his hand and showed them exactly what he was about to do.

"Three, Two…"

"Stop!" She yelled.

"Talk,"

"Let him go!"

"Talk," He yelled back.

"Just let him go and then we'll tell you everything," She said firmly.

"Um…no I don't like that idea," He said, "Now one more chance,"

_Michelle climbed the stairs to Tony's office as she watched him still on the phone. She arrived just as he slammed down the phone._

"_Son of a bitch," He muttered under his breath, he looked up obviously hoping she hadn't heard._

"_Hey," She said walking over to him._

"_Hey," He said as he buried his head in his hands. She could see he needed to talk now whether he wanted to or not. As he didn't look like he was about to move she went and closed the blinds before heading behind him. She rested her head on his shoulders as she rubbed his arm with one hand while the other arm wrapped securely around his chest._

"_It'll be ok," She whispered into his ear as she kissed his cheek. He said nothing but shook his head._

"_Hey Tony, look at me," She said but he didn't. She couldn't bear seeing him like this, she loved him so much and she'd do anything to make him feel better and right now she needed to know how he was feeling. She released her grip and walked round swinging his chair with her before kneeling on the floor in front of him. She placed her hands on his legs and looked up to see his eyes staring down at her. _

"_Talk to me," She said simply. He just sat there. She knew he may not want to but this was what they did. If it was a tough day for one of them more then the other then they'd make them open up and explain how they felt. They both knew that it worked and they always felt better after they'd talked it out together. He looked at her and wiped his eyes as she stood up in front of him. She took his hand and led him over to the couch. Once they reached the couch he sat down but she didn't join him, today he needed comforting and she knew how to do it. He was about to speak when she said, "Lie,"  
_

"_Chelle,"_

"_Lie down Tony," She smiled at him._

"_Fine," He said as he lay down. She knelt down beside him and started stroking his hair. _

"_Please talk to me," She said as she continued stroking his hair._

"_I don't even know where to begin," He said taking her free hand and kissing it. _

"_W__ell why don't you start with Will," She said. She knew it was what was really bothering him. He and Will were friends and Will has just been killed. Tony hadn't even had time to grieve before Chappelle was there yelling at him that it was his fault_

"_Tony," She said. He hadn't said anything for a while._

"_Sorry," He said._

"_It's ok, just tell me what you're thinking," She said as she kissed his head._

"_What that I ha__te Chappelle, blame him for Will's death," He said looking at her._

"_Yep," She told him, "You were right and Chappelle is a jerk not to see that,"  
_

"_Well that d__oesn't change the fact that Will's dead," He said._

"_I know, he even wanted to me to talk to you about it," She said, he looked at her asking her what she'd said, "And I told him that you were right, you told him it wouldn't work, that it was a rushed job which was his fault," _

"_Thanks,"_

"_For what?"  
_

"_Sticking up for me," He told her._

"_Tony I don't need to stick up for you I was stating my opinion that you were right and i__t was Chappelle's fault Will was killed," She explained. She never needed to stick up for him because she knew he could handle it himself but she would always be there when he did need her._

"_Yeah, I just had to explain it to his wife," Tony told her._

"_Oh sweetheart you shouldn't have had to, you should have told me," She said. She couldn't believe he'd done that; she couldn't even begin to imagine how hard it was for him._

"_Well I thought it would be better coming from me but she blamed me for it," He sighed._

"_It's not you__r fault," She said. If only Will's wife knew what had gone on, how much Tony had tried to stop the mission._

"_I should have stopped him," Tony said._

"_You and Will__ are as stubborn as each other and there was no way you could have stopped him," She said. It was true but she really wished Will had listened to Tony on this one._

"_Yeah look thanks Chelle but I should really finish this work so we can get out of here," He said sitting up._

"_Ok…" There was still so much he needed to tell her.  
_

"_We'll talk at home…I just can't do this here," She nodded at him; she knew what he meant. She got up and went to leave but he pulled her back, as he stood up he kissed her hungrily. She didn't return it straight away, slightly surprised but seconds later she pushed her tongue in his mouth and wrestled with his. After a few minutes he pulled back._

"_Better," She laughed._

"_Yeah," He smiled._

"_Well if this is all I gotta do to make you feel better meet me in the closet in 5 minutes," She smiled which he laughed at. He needed to laugh, she hadn't seen him smile today and she missed it.  
_

"_Chelle,"  
_

"_Ok 10," She said._

"_I'll be ok as soon as we get out of here and then you can make me feel better," He said seductively._

"_Guess the bed is more comfortable then the closet," She smiled as she leaned in and kissed him, "Don't be too long," She said as she headed to the door._

"_Oh um can you keep an eye on Tim for me, I sent him to the situation room to keep him out the way," He said opening the blinds._

"_The situation room?" She questioned. Oh god so that was what he had said when he was talking to her and she'd sent him there. Chappelle did not like kids no surprise but he seemed to really dislike Tim, probably since he was Tony's kid and it was no secret Chappelle was not so fond of Tony._

"_Yeah," He said heading to his desk, he turned round and obviously he could tell __from her expression that something was wrong, "What is it?"  
_

"_Um well Chappelle's in there," She said._

"_Jesus," Tony said and headed to the door. Michelle stopped him for a second. The last thing he needed was to go in there all worked up._

"_Just be calm ok Tim probably went somewhere else," She told him, she hoped he had at least._

"_Yeah let's go," He said as he grabbed the door handle when the phone went. He looked round but didn't move to get it._

"_You get it I'll go find Tim ok," She said but he didn't say anything,, "Ok," She said again. It would be better if she went and he stayed here until he was calmer._

"_Yeah ok," He said and went to answer it. She walked down the stairs as she heard him answer it._

"_Tim," She called out as she came to stand next to him. Well he wasn't in there so that was a start._

"_Yeah," He said as he turned to face her._

"_Did you?" She asked and indicated to the door._

"_Uh yeah sorry but dad said it would be free and I didn't notice until I was in there," Tim said. Oh god this could not be good._

"_It's ok. What did he say?" She asked. She needed to know so she could see whet possible damage she needed to sort out._

"_Um…" He started but stopped._

"_Come with me," She said and led him to the break room. It would be easier to talk there and hopefully no one would interrupt them. Once they were there she started making some coffee while Tim just stood there. She needed it just to get through the rest of the day._

"_So?" She asked._

"_Well he asked me…he wants me to, well all of us to um…go on an Intel gathering mission," Tim said. She turned round and burst out laughing. It was good to laugh considering the day she'd had and no matter what happened Tim did always seem to be able to make her feel better._

"_Ok I don't care what your dad says about sports I think comedian is the job for you," She smiled as she poured the coffee. She turned back to him and noticed he wasn't laughing but looked serious. _

"_You're serious?" She asked as she sat down._

"_Yeah," He nodded._

"_Tim…" There was no way in hell this was going to happen.  
_

"_Just hear me out please," Tim said._

"_You said yes," She said. She knew him too well by now._

"_Chelle please just hear me out then you can yell at me," Tim said as he sat down._

"_Ok," She said but there was no way she could let this happen. Chappelle must be up to something to actually want to talk to Tim let alone send him on a mission. God what was she thinking Tim was a kid, he couldn't go on a mission it was too dangerous._

"_He said that the guy they are after is having some family vacation thing for people and that they have an invite for us, well not for us but you know for us to pretend to be. Basically all he wants us to do is sit around a holiday resort place for 2 weeks and tell him if we hear anything," Tim said but she said nothing, "Come on, you have been telling dad he needs a holiday so why not use this, I mean you could spend the whole time in your hotel room if you wanted and claim you haven't heard anything. It's not dangerous it's just passing on information and I mean we may not even hear anything so we get 2 weeks holiday all paid for," He just had no idea what would go on. She needed him to understand where she was coming from no matter how good two weeks off with Tony did sound._

"_Ok let me put it to you this way first Chappelle wants you for something otherwise he would have kicked you out the building by now cause we all know how much he likes kids. Second there is something really weird about this mission anyway because we haven't been told what this guy is supposed to be up to, so god knows what we might end up hearing. Third if Chappelle got this invite for us it means we're taking someone's place, someone who has either been killed or they have locked up. Forth…"  
_

"_I get it ok, but Chappelle said he needed me cause it's a family thing and yo__u can't go without a kid. He said that this guy was a terrorist and was planning attack so if we learnt any info, well that's what we're needed for. Also so what if this invite was for some dead guy or someone they've got locked up, this guy won't have met them before…" Why couldn't he just think about what he said for a minute.  
_

"_Tim if this guy is dead or locked up what does it tell you he does?"  
_

"_Oh…didn't think about that," Tim said. Yeah he hadn't which made her wonder what else he hadn't thought about._

"_Tim this mission, we don't know much about it so…" And that was most unusual so it didn't make her feel any better that Chappelle was trying to get Tim involved.  
_

"_Please Chelle, look I promise I'll do as you guys say, I'll stay away from all the guys who are supposed to be bad or whatever. It's a holiday, you and dad both need one so why not now when they'll pay for it and it won't be dangerous if we decided what we do yeah so…"  
_

"_Tim…" Ok so he did have a point if it was just an Intel gathering op then technically if they didn't hear anything it wasn't their fault. And her and Tony could do with a holiday.  
_

"_Look I'll do chores for a month I promise; I'll do whatever you guys say while we're there. Please," He begged. God he was desperate if he was offering to do chores._

"_Tim I dunno," She said rubbing her head. Ok so she was starting to come round to the idea but she still had doubts._

"_Look you and dad can relax together and you know how hard that is for me to say so come on, two weeks at some millionaires place," Tim said moving closer. She sighed and drank her coffee. Ok she did want two weeks off with Tony and what Tim had said did seem to make her think that it could be possible." I guess I could think about it," She said._

"_What's that mean?" He asked impatiently._

"_What do you think Einstein?"  
_

"_Well is it like I'll think about it yes or I'll think about it no way in hell but I'll pretend for a while?" He asked which she laughed at._

"_I think I should talk to Chappelle," She said. She knew she couldn't trust just what Tim had said, it wasn't that she didn't trust him but god knows what Chappelle said to him which could have given him the wrong impression._

"_Aww no come on please say yes please,"  
_

"_God when did you become five?" She asked._

"_I'm not," He said.  
_

"_Well you do a great impression,"_

"_Haha," He said sarcastically, "So seriously?"  
_

"_Ok I'll will talk to Chappelle and if," She started but stopped as he smiled, "I said if he tells me the same as you and there are no dangers I will agree to it ok, but if there is something you have left out like the fact we're pretending to be mass murderers or I have to hook up with some guy then forget it,"  
_

"_Ok," He smiled. Yeah she probably would agree to it._


	3. Chapter 3: Convincing Tony

_Chapter 3 cheer. Again thanks for the reviews and just so you know i'm off to Spain for the next 2 weeks so won't be able to update till i get back so here's a nice long chapter for you :) Please R&R._

**Chapter 3 – Convincing Tony**

Tony was doing his best to yell, get the tape off his mouth anything; he couldn't just sit back and watch. No one seemed to be noticing him; he could hear Michelle yelling at Paul but he wasn't listening. He had no other choice, he got up which definitely got everyone's attention. The guard grabbed him pushing the gun into his head and called for Paul. At least it had worked he hadn't broken any of Tim's fingers but god knows what he would do to him now. He looked down and saw Michelle, she looked terrified. As he turned back he felt the tape pull the hairs from his skin.

"Should have known you try something," Paul said as he punched him in the stomach.

"You think this is trying something? You think my brilliant escape plan is standing up and letting you beat the shit out of me? Well then you got some serious problems," He said which earned him another blow to the ribs, but he didn't care, everyone was focused on him and that meant that at least for now Michelle and Tim were safe. If only he could have stopped this earlier.

"_Almeida," He answered. _

"_Tony," Oh good just what he needed Brad Hammond._

"_Brad," He said, "What can I do for you?"  
_

"_Well it seems there are some problems over at CTU and I think we need to talk about them," Brad said while Tony sat down, whenever Brad said they needed to talk about something it meant he'd listen while Brad yelled at him about how everything was his fault._

"_What problems?" He__ asked even though he already had a pretty good idea…Chappelle._

"_Well I've been talking to Ryan," Oh what a surprise, "And he seems to think that you have not been co-operating to help move forward this mission," Oh well done Ryan you finally figured something out and went and told off m__e._

"_It's not that I've not been co-operating but that I oppose his ideas," He explained._

"_What is that supposed to mean?" Brad __asked._

"_It means that I think we're rushing into this and someone else is going to get killed if we don't take a step back and figure things out."_

"_Right,"  
_

"_Also I told Ryan that the mission which resulted in agent Carter being killed this morning was a rushed job and would never work yet Chappelle still pursued it and look what happened,"_

"_Well what do you want a medal?" _

"_No I want someone to stop Chappelle creating another suicide mission," He breathed angrily._

"_Well for that to happen we need all of CTU to co-operate," Brad told him._

"_No we don't because he won't listen to what I say if it doesn't fit in with his plans, and since when do I need a babysitter?" He asked._

"_Ryan is not a babysitter, he's just there to help…"  
_

"_Well he's not…he's slowing us down, if you just let me handle it I'll find you and in, I'll prepare a mission and carry it out but we need time…"  
_

"_You of all people should know we don't have that luxury," Hammond told him._

"_Look it would be a lot easier to co-operate if I knew why you were so desperate to get this guy,"_

"_Well unfortunately I cannot divulge that information with you," Hammond said._

"_Well that's why I'm not co-operating then, never have I been working on a mission when I don't know the purpose of it, what this guy is supposedly going to do__?" Of course he knew they weren't going to be told everything but they hadn't even been given one decent piece of information on this Landon guy yet._

"_All you need to know is that this man is a threat, he is going to launch a terrorist attack soon and we need to stop him. That's your job Tony so that's all you need to know,"_

"_What kind of attack? How did you get this information…"  
_

"_Almeida just listen you don't need to know that…"  
_

"_Well what about family, has we got any we can use to our advantage? His associates, do we know them? What about…"  
_

"_Just listen all you need…"  
_

"_No you listen, the name you gave us was useless which means it's not even an alias because we would have found something so I need to know this guy's real name and I need to know it now so we can start working. It's like you're just doing th__is to keep us out the way," He yelled._

"_Tony I can assure the name is genuine and any information you need to know to help you will be provided," Brad said._

"_That's bullshit Brad," He yelled and slammed down the phone._

He was right they had lied about the name, about the whole purpose of the mission and last night when Tony had learnt who this Mr Landon really was, he knew exactly why they had kept it a secret but also why they had to leave. This was probably one of the most dangerous missions he'd ever taken part in and his gut instinct had been right, he hadn't been told all the information so he should never taken part in it. It was too late now but if he ever got his hands on Hammond and Chappelle he'd kill them for what they'd tricked him and his family into doing.

"Paul," One of the guards called as they walked in holding out a phone to him.

"What?" He snapped angrily.

"Landon's on the phone for you, he wants to know what's going on," The guard said handing Paul the phone.

"Fine," He breathed angrily and turned away from Tony and Michelle, "Sir,"  
Tony watched carefully as Paul talked on the phone.

"No I haven't got anything from them yet…but I thought you wanted me to do this…well what should I do with them?…are you sure?…ok yes I'll call you when it's done…yes I'll do that…an hour max…she's still in her room as far as I know…ok bye," Paul said and hung up.

Tony just watched as he moved over to one of the other guards and whispered something to them. The next moment the guard behind him had pushed him forwards. He looked round to see the man behind Michelle yank her up from the floor and push her forwards as well.

"What's going on?" He asked as they were forced to the door.

"Business," Paul said as he and another grabbed Tim and dragged him through the door.

_He was furious how dare Brad tell him that he was being told everything he needed to be told? He knew he wasn't. He slammed his fist on the desk making his mug shudder. Tim he remembered and headed out the door down to the situation room but only Chappelle was there. Ok so Michelle was right he'd gone somewhere else but where were they? He looked round, but there was no sign so he headed off to the break room. He walked in to find Tim sitting on the couch, almost asleep. As he closed the door Tim's eyes looked to him._

"_Oh hey," Tim said and sat up._

"_Hey, so where's Michelle? She came to find you," He said._

"_Er…yeah, yeah she did," Tim said._

"_So where is she?" _

"_Not sure said she had to do something," Tim said._

"_Right so um d__id you bump into Chappelle?" He asked wondering why he hadn't heard screaming._

"_Uh yeah kinda did, sorry but I don't think he was too mad," _

"_It's ok I should have made sure no one was there. You apologized I take it?"  
_

"_Yeah and you got the comment of thinking you were running a day care," _

"_Haven't had that one for a while," __He said. Chappelle did like to mix up his phrases dealing with Tim coming into CTU. _

"_Yeah but I don't think you've got much to worry about," Tim said and then avoided eye contact when he looked at him._

"_Why's that?" He asked, when Tim did this it meant he knew something._

"_No reason,"  
_

"_Yeah course, come on out with it," He said._

"_It's nothing dad honest,"  
_

"_Liar now tell me the truth, if Chappelle wasn't pissed off with you then he wanted something but he doesn't like you one bit and there's nothing you could do for him anyway. So I'll ask again why do I have nothing to worry about when Chappelle should be on a rampage right now?" He asked._

"U_m…well he kinda asked me to do something," Tim said._

"_What kind of thing?" He asked, what the hell would Chappelle even want with Tim anyway?_

"_Well he um…you know that mission you guys are trying to do…well they err…" _

"_What did he ask you to do?"_

"_They've got a mission and they need to send a family in…" Tim started but he cut him off._

"_And you better have said no," There was no way Chappelle was getting Tim involved in anything especially since the last mission went so well._

"_Well I was going to but…"  
_

"_You said yes!" He said angrily._

"_Uh yeah…but just listen…"  
_

"_You said yes! What the hell were you thinking? What have I always told you?__ How can you be so stupid?" He yelled. He didn't mean to but he was so worked up and there was no way he could let Tim take part in anything to do with his work because he'd be hurt. He was so scared every time Michelle was called into the field, so there was no way he was letting Tim take part in anything, what would they even want him for anyway?_

"_Dad ok I know you said that I was never to get involved in anything like this…"  
_

"_Oh really so you do remember, it wasn't me just talking to myself like usual," He snapped._

"_What's that supposed to mean?" Tim said obviously hurt by what he'd said._

"_Nothing, don't worry," He__ said, "Just what the hell were you thinking?"_

"_I…" But he stopped as the door opened. He looked round to see Michelle walk in._

"_You heard what he's agreed to?" He asked angrily._

"_Tony can we talk in private," She said._

"_Yeah no problem I'm going," Tim said angrily as he barged past him._

"_Tim," She called obviously slightly surprised by what he'd just done, "What's going on?"  
_

"_He's been stupid enough to agree to some mission Chappelle is putting together," He said folding his arms._

"_I know," She said. He couldn't quite believe what he was hearing, "You knew and you let him go through with it?"  
_

"_Look I'm not talking to you about this until you calm down,"  
_

"_Yes you are," He said angrily._

"_No Tony you need to calm down because I know what you're like when you get worked up,"  
_

"_I'm not worked up," He snapped but she just looked at him, "Ok so I am a little," _

"_I know just sit down," She said and he did as she said. She came and sat in front of him. He was about to speak but she got there first, "I'll explain all to you but you must not say anything till the end and then we can talk about it ok?"  
_

"_Ok," He said even though he wasn't happy about it but he knew Michelle would never talk to him when he was shouting about everything. But he did have a right to be angry, one of his friends was killed by the mission which Chappelle had set up and now he was setting up one that involved his son._

"_I know it's been a hard day," She said as she rubbed his knee and he nodded, "Ok basically Chappelle has found an in…It's a family thing this Mr Landon is having but it's just a cover for him and the people he is working with to talk about their plans. They have an invite and want to send us undercover…"  
_

"_Us?" He asked, she must be joking. But then Chappelle must have known he'd never agree to it if Tim was going alone with other agents but he still wouldn't agree to it._

"_Just listen…he wants me, you and Tim to go undercover as a family. It's two weeks for Intel gathering, that's it and I made sure of that when I talked to Chappelle…it's just Intel gathering. So like you at first of course I said no to Tim but he told me what Chappelle said so I went and talked to Chappelle. Now Tony we both know that it's been really stressed here recently and we could both do with a holiday…so I was thinking that we could use this to get away as a family. As it's just Intel gathering if we don't hear anything or find out anything then we have nothing to do. And I made it clear we were not doing any breaking in or sleeping with the enemy stuff ok so it's just what we may hear, which if we stay out of the way will be nothing,"  
_

"_Chelle, they are desperate to get this guy as if his attack would happen tomorrow. Now why they would they be willing to send us in undercover for two weeks on the off ch__ance we may hear something?" He asked, there was no way she couldn't of thought of that._

"_I know I asked the same thing but Chappelle said they'd received some knew Intel that this attack had been postponed and so they'd send us in while they thought of something else. They also said that we may learn what this Mr Landon likes you know so they can use it to do a proper mission,"  
_

"_No," He said._

"_What do you mean no?"  
_

"_We're not doing it. I don't trust them, there's something else going on and I don't know what it is but we hardly know anything about this guy, what he's apparently up to so god knows what could happen,"  
_

"_Tony didn't you just hear what I said?"  
_

"_Yeah I did and it sounds too good you know like we'd be mad not to accept it,"  
_

"_Exactly so say yes,"  
_

"_Well that's exactly why I'm saying no,"_

"_Tony ple__ase, I know you're upset about Will ok but you need a holiday, you need to relax and this is the perfect opportunity, we will keep away from everyone who is supposed to be involved and we will have a proper holiday," She told him. Ok she was persuading him but there was no way they could do this, there was something very wrong about it and he couldn't let them do it._

"_Chelle we can't, I just don't think it's a good idea,"  
_

"_Yes it is,"  
_

"_No they are using us, they use everyone I just don't know what they're using us for yet," He said._

"_Just listen to yourself," She said. _

"_Look I'm not going and neither are you or Tim," He told her. He couldn't let them get hurt and there was no way that a mission could be so safe._

"_Look Tony Tim's already agreed to it…"  
_

"_So what I can talk to him I'll change his mind…"  
_

"_And so have I," She told him. She'd what? He couldn't believe it...she wouldn't have. They both agreed they'd always talk to each other about mission__s before they agreed to them._

"_What's this mean then?" He asked but he already knew._

"_Honey…"_

"_You're going and I can either come or they'll find a replacement?" He stated more to himself then Michelle._

"_It's not like that. Look…"_

"_Chelle please it's not safe…just please for me,"  
_

"_Tony I'm doing this for you, you need a holiday and this way you get one while you're technically working," _

"_What about Conner?" He asked._

"_I'm gonna ask you're sister to look after him,"  
_

"_So you're willing to let Tim go on this mission but not Conner. I mean if it's so safe why not bring the whole family, I mean you did say we'd be going as a family," He said angrily._

"_Tony I know you're angry but we both know Tim is old enough to make his own decisions but Conner is only two and despite what you may think even I will never be stupid enough to take our two year old son on a mission," She told him. He could see she was hurt and angry at him and she had a right to be, he was just saying no and he didn't have much proof, but he knew something wasn't right._

"_Chelle I never think you're stupid and of course I wouldn't ever think of bringing Conner on a mission but don't you feel the sam__e way about Tim?" He asked._

"_Sweetheart of course I do but we can't stop Tim he knows what he wants to do so lets do as I said, lets take a holiday and we won't let Tim get hurt cause we will make sure he stays away from everyone who is supposedly a terrorist,"_

"_I can't do it, we can't…"  
_

"_Tony I've told you me and Tim are going…"  
_

"_So I've got no choice?" _

"_Of course you do but if I found anything when I was going through it with Chappelle I wouldn't have let it happen you know that," Ok yeah he believed her but he didn't believe she was bei__ng told all the information. Although it seemed like he didn't have a choice, he needed to go just to make sure they'd be ok._

"_Get your stuff we're going," He said standing up; he needed a word with Chappelle._

"_Tony…"  
_

"_Get Tim I'll meet you at the car," He snapped slamming the door behind him._

* * *

Tim opened his eyes to the floor, at first he thought he'd fallen down and they'd just left him there but he was moving. He looked to the side to see a pair of feet and to the other side he saw the same. He was being dragged along like some child's plaything. His head hurt, more then hurt it was like nothing he'd ever felt before. His eyes wouldn't stay open no matter how hard he tried to force them so he gave in. The next thing he knew he was looking up at the ceiling. He could feel the cold stone floor through his t-shirt; it was if it wasn't even there. Slowly he turned his head, he didn't want to risk any sudden movements encase it resulted in passing out again. 

"Hey Tim can you hear me?" Michelle said. He looked to her, she seemed ok so far. He then turned to his dad, all he could clearly see was the cut above his head which seemed to have stopped bleeding but had still added a new pattern to his favourite pale blue shirt. He was sure there was more damage which he couldn't see though.

"Tim?" His dad called.

"…yeah…" Was all he could manage, his mouth was dry and everything hurt, he never wanted to feel this way again.

"You alright mate?" His dad asked. He could see from the corner from his eye his dad starting to move over to him.

"Tim?" Michelle said as she joined his dad.

"…sorry…"

"Hey you have nothing to be sorry about, we're gonna get out of this you hear me," His dad said.

"…I'm sorry cause…cause it's my fault we…did this," He managed to say.

"It's ok," Michelle said, "Can you move?" He didn't even want to find out the answer to that question.

"Yeah," It was his fault so he'd do anything to get them out of this. Slowly he tried to sit up, that's when he noticed his hands were untied. He managed to get into a sitting position without too much more pain.

"Think you can untie us?" His dad asked and he nodded which he realised was not a good idea as he grabbed his head in pain.

"Tim you ok?" Michelle asked.

"Yeah, yeah I'm fine," He said as his dad turned around allowing Tim to untie him. Once the rope was on the floor he just watched as his dad undid Michelle and then got up looking around. Tim already knew there was no way out, concrete walls, one window with bars across it and a door which had two heavily armed guards on the other side. Instead of helping he just watched as his dad moved around the room every now and again holding his side.

"Tony you ok?" Michelle asked as she sat by Tim and started to examine his injuries.

"Yeah, it's nothing maybe a broken rib but I'll be fine just make sure he's ok we're gonna have to move fast," His dad told her as he continued to examine the bars around the window.

"Tim where does it hurt?" She asked laying his head in her lap.

"Everywhere," He said honestly.

"Ok don't worry we're gonna get you out of here," She said as she felt his head.

"Chelle…" He whispered.

"Yeah?"

"I'm so sorry," He said. It was his fault, all of this his fault.

"It's ok," She said and kissed his head, "We're gonna get out of this,"

_Tim just sat down and let his eyes relax as Michelle had gone off and he had nothing else to do. If he was honest with himself that practise had really taken it out of him. He felt like he could sleep for the rest of the day. Suddenly he heard the door open. After a moment he opened his eyes slightly to reveal his dad standing in front of him._

"_Oh hey," He said and sat up._

"_Hey, so where's Michelle? She came to find you," His dad said._

"_Er…yeah, yeah she did," He said._

"_So where is she?" _

"_Not sure said she had to do something," He said. Ok well he did know where she was and what she was doing but he really didn't want to be the one to tell his dad what was going on._

"_Right so um did you bump into Chappelle?" His dad asked. Oh great this would lead him into explaining about the mission and there was no way his dad would listen. Michelle would shout at him sure but she'd normally at least hear him out unless she was in a really bad mood. And his dad, well ok yeah he was pretty much the same but he preferred when Michelle yelled at him because he could see she felt sorry for him at the same time. Even though he was sure his dad may have those feelings he was very good at hiding them._

"_Uh yeah kinda did, sorry but I don't think he was too mad," He said. Just don't ask anymore please._

"_It's ok I should have made sure no one was there. You apologized I take it?"  
_

"_Yeah and you got the comment of thinking you were running a day care," Every time Tim had ended up at CTU no matter if Chappelle was even there as long as he'd heard about it he'd be the first one in with a cheap comment about it. When it got to five he seemed to run out of ideas and so repeated the old lines. Tim did wonder if he'd learnt them off the internet or something. _

"_Haven't had that one for a while," His dad said. _

"_Yeah but I don't think you've got much to worry about," He said and then realized his mistake, never say that he knows you know something now. Instead of looking back at his dad he avoided eye contact._

"_Why's that?" _

"_No reason," Oh shit I'm screwed.  
_

"_Yeah course, come on out with it," He said._

"_It's nothing dad honest," If he didn't leave it there he'd have to tell him otherwise he'd get angry and wouldn't leave him until he knew what it was.  
_

"_Liar now tell me the truth, if Chappelle wasn't pissed off with you then he wanted something but he doesn't like you one bit and there's nothing you could do for him anyway. So I'll ask again why do I have nothing to worry about when Chappelle should be on a rampage right now?" His dad asked._

"U_m…well he kind__a asked me to do something," He said. Maybe if I break it gently it'll leave me enough time to run out the room and get Chelle._

"_What kind of thing?" His dad asked. Ok he had to tell him. He should just tell him everything very quickly and hope he doesn't hear most of it._

"_Well he um…you know that mission you guys are trying to do…well they err…" Ok so that didn't work as soon as he looked at his dad he got nervous._

"_What did he ask you to do?" His dad asked._

"_They've got a mission and they need to send a family in…" He started but his dad cut him off._

"_And you better have said no," Well he wasn't yelling yet but Tim was pretty sure he about to._

"_Well I was going to but…"  
_

"_You said yes!" His dad said angrily. _

"_Uh yeah…but just listen…" Michelle was so much easier to talk to Tim thought as he tired to think of a way to explain to him.  
_

"_You said yes! What the hell were you thinking? What have I always told you? How can you be so stupid?" His dad yelled. Well he was expecting that._

"_Dad ok I know you said that I was never to get involved in anything like this…" He just needed to explain; if he'd just hear him out he might understand. He wouldn't have done it if it was dangerous but this wasn't.  
_

"_Oh really so you do remember, it wasn't me just talking to myself like usual," His dad snapped._

"_What's that supposed to mean?" He said, that was just anger he hoped but it still hurt. Did he really think he never listened?_

"_Nothing, don't worry," His dad said. So he did mean something by it,"Just what the hell were you thinking?"_

"_I…" But he stopped as the door opened. He looked to see Michelle walk in._

"_You heard what he's agreed to?" His dad asked angrily._

"_Tony can we talk in private," She said. Tim was trying to think but he kept going back to what his dad had said. He couldn't believe it but it really hurt._

"_Yeah no problem I'm going," He said angrily as he barged past his dad._

"_Tim," Michelle called obviously slightly surprised by what he'd just done, "What's going on?" He heard her ask as he walked down the corridor. It's not like he had anywhere else he could go and he couldn't face sitting with Chappelle who for once wouldn't tell him to bugger off since he was now working for him but would still annoy him. Instead he settled for the locker room, it seemed empty and he knew no one really used it unless they were going on a mission or were about to leave._

* * *

"Tony," She called as she looked up to him. He was still by the windows which meant he'd probably found something. 

"Uh yeah," He called back but remained focused on one of the bars.

"You found something?" She asked.

"Maybe, how's Tim?" He asked as he grabbed one of the ropes from the floor.

"He'll live," She said as got up and walked over to him. But he was still pretty badly injured. She stopped by Tony who had wrapped the rope around two of the bars and was trying to pull them out.

"How is he really?" He whispered.

"Not sure, concussed I think. He's not completely with it, bruises, cuts but hopefully nothing else," She told him as she took his hand for a moment. He turned to face her and pulled her into a hug.

"I'm sorry Tony I'm so sorry," She cried against him. She should have stopped this if only Tim had agreed to it then they could have stopped him but she'd made a decision and it was her fault. Tony was right, she should have listened to him, and she should have listened to the voice that told her Chappelle wasn't giving them all the information. Ok she had but by the time she had it was far too late.

"Hey it's ok, it'll be ok. I'm getting both of you out of here alive," He told her and kissed her. After a moment she pulled back.

"I love you," She said, "I…" But she didn't know what else to say so instead kissed him again.

"For god's sake get a room," Tim said which caused both of them to stop and smile slightly.

"Think he's gonna be ok," Tony smiled.

"I'm not deaf," Tim said.

"I know," Tony said as he went over to him. She just stayed by the window until Tony motioned for her to come over. Tim was still lying on the floor and Tony sat next to him. She went to sit down on the other side but Tony pulled her into his lap.

"Ok so I was right," Tony laughed.

"You think now is the time to tell us that?" She asked, she was scared to death and Tony was making jokes.

"Yep," He smiled as he took her hand and Tim's, "Look we will get through this ok but I need you to do as I say,"

"Ok," Tim said and she nodded. She trusted him with her life and since she knew this was her fault she'd do anything to get them out of this.

"This was no one's fault, ok;" Both of them tried to interrupt, "You two are as bad as each other you know,"

"Dad…"

"Just hear me out," Tony said and they nodded again. Tim looked in pain as he did it, "It was none of our faults but so help me god if I get my hands on Chappelle because he knew about this, him and Hammond not telling us…"

"Tony calm down, we'll get out of this then we'll both be having words with them," She said, he needed to focus. She knew if anyone could get them out of this it was Tony.

"Don't think dad will be having words," Tim laughed which caused Tony to mess up his hair.

"Hey…"

"Shhh… anyway as I was saying none of us are to blame, and we will get out of this, all of us alive. Now those bars on the window are rusty and I'm pretty sure I can break them but…"

"We can't all fit out of that," She said noticing that the window was not exactly that big. Tim could get through it and her too probably but Tony may have a problem.

"Well not only that but we have no idea where we are, what's out there…"

"And we're not leaving you here, what if they came back Tony and we weren't here, we stick together," She told him firmly. She was not going to let Tony sacrifice himself for her.

"Well…ok but it might come to that and if it does I don't want any arguments," He told them. She nodded in agreement but she knew there was no way she'd let him do that and she was pretty sure he knew that too.

_Michelle left Tim and went off to find Chappelle, quickly stopping off at the bathroom. Maybe she should talk to Tony first but she didn't want to worry him for no reason, if there was anything she considered to be dangerous she would stop Tim going and that way Tony wouldn't have any unnecessary stress. But if it was as Tim said, that they were basically getting a free vacation she would have no reason to say no. Tony did need a holiday and she really wanted some time off with him. The last day off they had both had was far too long ago and they needed some time together. She walked in and obviously Chappelle had been expecting her as he offered her a chair._

"_I take it you've spoken to Tim," Chappelle said and handed her a folder._

"_Yes," She said and opened the folder to reveal a brief outline of the mission Chappelle had come up with, "The Niven's?" _

"_That will be you; they believe that Tony is second in command to a man named Mr. Sampson. He's in our custody but he either doesn't know much or he's had some very good torture training. The one thing we did manage to get this man to do was call Landon and tell him he'd be sending his second in command but we made sure we took care of all the details," Chappelle said as Michelle continued to flick through the file, there wasn't much there compared to a normal mission briefing. Chappelle seemed to notice this._

"_I know there isn't much but it's been rushed in the last half an hour and that's the best I can do for now but we will have a full briefing tomorrow and then you'll leave on Sunday," Chappelle explained._

"_Right so what haven't you told Tim?" Michelle asked because she knew there was something wrong with this mission._

"_Nothing, I've told him everything that he needs to know," Chappelle said, yeah that he needs to know tha__t's the part I'm worried about._

"_Ok I will agree to this…" Chappelle's face seemed to twitch as if he was about to smile, "If…if you answer all my questions honestly now and you swear to me that there is no danger to me or Tony or Tim at all,"  
_

"_Michelle I will tell you everything you want to know and there is no danger that I'm aware of, like I told Tim this is an Intel gathering op not anything else,"  
_

"_Ok, first why us?"  
_

"_Because you are a family, it's genuine they won't suspect you will they…"  
_

"_No that's not what I asked, why did you pick us why not some other family?"  
_

"_Like I was saying, look I saw Tim today and I realised that he was old enough to know what he was doing and not blow this op and we need something on this guy," Chappelle said._

"_Ok well that brings me on to the next one. You are desperate to get this guy, the last__ mission was so rushed that Will was killed…" Chappelle was about to speak but she continued before he got a chance, "So this mission you're proposing is two weeks for me and Tony to lie around a pool and there's no guarantee we'll even hear anything. You are desperate to get this guy so why the hell would you send the director and second in command away when it may be a complete waste of time because you're acting like this thing could happen tomorrow?"  
_

"_I know we told you all that Carter's mission was a complete failure but it wasn't, we learnt about this thing and that the attack has been postponed, that this holiday thing he is holding is a cover for all of the terrorists to meet up and discuss their plans," Chappelle explained._

"_Right so who are we supposed to be because if you arrested this Mr Sampson he's involved so that means we are supposed to be involved and we're not doing this if we're pretending to be terrorists because we both know they'll check everything about us and there's no way you will have it covered,"  
_

"_We know and you are not going to be taking the place of a terrorist, we made that clear when we got Sampson to make the call. And don't worry you're not the only ones, there are quite a few families who don't have any connections to terrorist activity as far as we know," Chappelle told her. Ok so, so far it was sounding possible. _

"_You are telling me everything right?" She asked as she shifted her position._

"_Yes we are,"_

"_There is no way we are breaking into anywhere and me and Tony are not going to sleep with a terrorist either,"  
_

"_Ok,"  
_

"_We are not going to get involved in anything which might lead us into helping with the attack,"  
_

"_Ok,"  
_

"_We are not putting our lives in danger,"  
_

"_Uh huh,"  
_

"_We are just gathering Intel even if it may result in nothing," She told him clearly._

"_That's all we need you to do, it may even be the smallest thing like a hobby which could get us another in for another mission," Chappelle told her._

"_Ok then I'll do it," She said. As far as she could see there was nothing she hadn't thought of. This so called mission just seemed like a free holiday and she wasn't going to turn it down, she would get Tony there and get him to relax._

"_That's excellent," Chappelle said, "Now we just need Tony on board and we can get started," _

"_I suppose you want me to talk to him since you got Tim to tell me," She said._

"_Well I think it would be better if it came from you or Tim," Chappelle said. More like Chappelle was just too scared about what Tony might do to him._

"_Ok I will go talk to him," She said and left. She walked out onto the floor and looked up expecting to see Tony but he wasn't there. So he had probably gone to find Tim she thought and headed back to the break room. She was sure this was the right thing to do, she was doing this for Tony; he had been under a lot of pressure recently. She knew he wouldn't be too thrilled at the idea but she was sure she could persuade him. As she turned the corner she could hear Tony angrily yelling at Tim. He must have told him she thought and hurried to open the door. As she did, both of them looked straight to her._

"_You heard what he's agreed to?" Tony asked angrily._

"_Tony can we talk in private," She said. He was angry great time to tell him, but he probably already knew most of it._

"_Yeah no problem I'm going," Tim said angrily as he barged past him._

"_Tim," She called. Now she knew she should have been the one to tell Tony. Tim was obviously upset by something and it didn't take a genius to figure out that it was Tony yelling at him, "What's going on?"  
_

"_He's been stupid enough to agree to some mission Chappelle is putting together," He said folding his arms._

"_I know," She said. Well this was it she was going to tell him._

"_You knew and you let him go through with it?"  
_

"_Look I'm not talking to you about this until you calm down," She knew what Tony was like when he got like this, he'd just yell and not even think about what he was saying.  
_

"_Yes you are," He said angrily._

"_No Tony you need to calm down because I know what you're like when you get worked up,"  
_

"_I'm not worked up," He snapped but she just looked at him, "Ok so I am a little," _

"_I know just sit down," She said and he did. She came and sat in front of him. He was about to speak but she got there first, "I'll explain all to you but you must not say anything till the end and then we can talk about it ok?"  
_

"_Ok," He said. She knew he wasn't happy about it but if they did it his way they'd end up just yelling at each other and that wouldn't accomplish anything._

"_I know it's been a hard day," She said as she rubbed his knee and he nodded, "Ok basically Chappelle has found an in…It's a family thing this Mr Landon is having but it's just a cover for him and the people he is working with to talk about their plans. They have an invite and want to send us undercover…"  
_

"_Us?" He asked. Ok she knew he wouldn't sit in silence but she would do her best to make him see this thing was not dangerous and that they could have a holiday._

"_Just listen…he wants me, you and Tim to go undercover as a family. It's two weeks for Intel gathering, that's it and I made sure of that when I talked to Chappelle…it's just Intel gathering. So like you at first of course I said no to Tim but he told me what Chappelle said so I went and talked to Chappelle. Now Tony we both know that it's been really stressed here recently and we could both do with a holiday…so I was thinking that we could use this to get away as a family. As it's just Intel gathering if we don't hear anything or find out anything then we have nothing to do. And I made it clear we were not doing any breaking in or sleeping with the enemy stuff ok so it's just what we may hear, which if we stay out of the way will be nothing,"  
_

"_Chelle, they are desperate to get this guy as if his attack would happen tomorrow. Now why they would they be willing to send us in undercover for two weeks on the off chance we may hear something?" Tony asked. She'd already asked Chappelle as that question had been bugging her._

"_I know I asked the same thing but Chappelle said they'd received some knew Intel that this attack had been postponed and so they'd send us in while they thought of something else. They also said that we may learn what this Mr Landon likes you know so they can use it to do a proper mission,"  
_

"_No," He said._

"_What do you mean no?" She hadn't expected that, not that she'd expected him to say yes either.  
_

"_We're not doing it. I don't trust them, there's something else going on and I don't know what it is but we hardly know anything about this guy, what he's apparently up to so god knows what could happen,"  
_

"_Tony didn't you just hear what I said?"  
_

"_Yeah I did and it sounds too good you know like we'd be mad not to accept it,"  
_

"_Exactly so say yes,"  
_

"_Well that's exactly why I'm saying no,"_

"_Tony please, I know you're upset about__ Will ok but you need a holiday, you need to relax and this is the perfect opportunity, we will keep away from everyone who is supposed to be involved and we will have a proper holiday," She told him. He can't have just completely dismissed the idea._

"_Chelle we can't, I just don't think it's a good idea,"  
_

"_Yes it is,"  
_

"_No they are using us, they use everyone I just don't know what they're using us for yet," He said._

"_Just listen to yourself," She said. _

"_Look I'm not going and neither are you or Tim," He told her. _

"_Look Tony Tim's already agreed to it…"  
_

"_So what I can talk to him I'll change his mind…"  
_

"_And so have I," She told him. She knew they had both agreed they'd always talk to each other about mission before they agreed to it but she knew what Tony was like and he needed a break even if she did had to force him on it._

"_What's this mean then?" He asked._

"_Honey…"_

"_You're going and I can either come or they'll find a replacement?" He asked. Well yes that was it but it's not like she would actually say it like that._

"_It's not like that. Look…"_

"_Chelle please it's not safe…just please for me,"  
_

"_Tony I'm doing this for you, you need a holiday and this way you get one while you're technically working," _

"_What about Conner?" He asked._

"_I'm gonna ask you're sister to look after him,"  
_

"_So you're willing to let Tim go on this mission but not Conner. I mean if it's so safe why not bring the whole family, I mean you did say we'd be going as a family," He said angrily. She couldn't believe he'd just said that, ok he was angry but still._

"_Tony I know you're angry but we both know Tim is old enough to make his own decisions but Conner is only two and despite what you may think even I will never be stupid enough to take our two year old son on a mission," She told him. She loved him more then anything but sometimes she really couldn't believe what he would say to her or what she'd say to him. Did he really think she'd suggest bringing their two year old son along?_

"_Chelle I never think you're stupid and of course I wouldn't ever think of bringing Conner on a mission but don't you feel the same way about Tim?" Tony asked._

"_Sweetheart of course I do but we can't stop Tim he knows what he wants to do so lets do as I said, lets take a holiday and we won't let Tim get hurt cause we will make sure he stays away from everyone who is supposedly a terrorist,"_

"_I can't do it, we can't…"  
_

"_Tony I've told you me and Tim are going…"  
_

"_So I've got no choice?" _

"_Of course you do but if I found anything when I was going through it with Chappelle I wouldn't have let it happen you know that," She wanted him to just say yes, this was a too good an opportunity to pass up._

"_Get your stuff we're going," He said standing up._

"_Tony…" She knew he was going to go and have a word with Chappelle but that would be putting it mildly.  
_

"_Get Tim I'll meet you at the car," He snapped slamming the door behind him. Oh good he was pissed off and about to talk to his boss, a recipe for disaster._

_She knew there was no point in trying to stop Tony__, he needed someone to yell at and she'd much rather prefer it to be Chappelle then herself. She stood up and headed to her station, grabbing her belongings and shutting down her system. She made sure to avoid looking into the situation room encase Chappelle asked her to come in as she was the only one who could calm her husband in these situations. Now all she needed was Tim, where would he be? She walked around and asked a few people but no one had seen him. The only place she could think of was the toilets unless he'd stormed out the place which would not help the matter of calming Tony down. _

"_Michelle," Kim called from across the room._

"_Yeah,"  
_

"_Chloe said you were looking for Tim," _

"_Yeah have you seen him?" She asked._

"_Uh yeah he was in the locker room," Kim said as she moved closer to her._

"_What the hell is he doing in there?"  
_

"_I dunno but he was talking to Chase when I went in there, he seemed kinda upset,"  
_

"_Yeah I know, Tony's…well he's not in the best mood should we say," She explained._

"_Ah ok I'll let you get on then,"  
_

"_Yeah, thanks Kim" Michelle said and headed off slinging her bag over her shoulder. Once she was there she opened the door and moved in to see Tim and Chase both sitting on one of the benches._

"_Hey," She said as she closed the door and dropped her bag to the floor._

"_Hey, um I think Kim said Jack needed me," Chase said as he stood up, "Good seeing you again Tim," With that he was out the door but Tim didn't say anything._

"_You alright?" She asked as she moved closer to him. He said nothing but just looked up at her, "Tim,"  
_

"_I'm fine don't worry," He said as he stood up and headed to the door but before he could reach the handle she put her arm in front of him to stop him. He took after his father more then he knew._

"_Michelle," He said as he tried to get past but again she stopped._

"_Sit down for a minute," She said but he stayed standing, "Fine but at least listen to me ok,"_

"_Ok," He said as he sat down which she was slightly surprised at but she followed and sat next to him._

"_We're all stressed ok and anything your dad said to you was probably just in the heat of the moment you know like when you're pissed off and you tell us you hate us but we know you don't…"  
_

"_I don't say that,"  
_

"_Actually you're right, well ok I said it to my dad before when I was angry but I never meant it, you know I was just letting out my frustration on him,"  
_

"_Yeah I know and I shouldn't let dad get to me when he's pissed off…"  
_

"_But he does I know, some of the things he yells at me when he's angry aren't something I like to mention again," She told him, "But normally that night he apologises for it and I forgive him because I love him…" _

_"Ok," Tim said cutting her off._

"_Ok so you ok about what he said?"_

"_Yep," _

"_You know you can talk to me about it if you want," She said, well of course he knew it, they actually had a really good relationship as Tim would open up to her most of the time._

"_Yeah, it's just stupid," Tim said._

"_Ok if you're sure,"  
_

"_So did you talk to him?" Tim asked._

"_I did,"  
_

"_And?"  
_

"_Um give him time,"  
_

"_He said no,"  
_

"_Yeah but I told him we're going so he should as well," Michelle said._

"_We're like forcing him to go," Tim stated.  
_

"_You could say that but I've checked everything, it's safe and your dad needs a holiday no matter how much he denies it. So if I have to force him on it then I will," She said._

"_Is he still pissed off with me?" Tim asked._

"_Nope I think it's about equal now," She smiled while Tim __looked scared, "Ah don't worry about it he'll come round and when we're on holiday and he can go swimming everyday, not worry about work...then he'll be ok," _

"_Yeah it's just the time before that I'm worried about," Tim said._

"_I'll talk to him, make him come round," She said._

"_Oh please don't,"  
_

"_Why not?" She asked innocently._

"_Cause when you say stuff like that well lets just say I'm sure it was a similar incident which resulted in Conner," Tim said as he rubbed his head._

"_I'll tell you now that it wasn't cause…well I cant be sure when Conner did happen but anytime round that time was…well nothing like this if you get what I mean," She smiled, knowing how uncomfortable he would be but considering her day had been one from hell she thought it was fair that she enjoy winding Tim up just a small bit.  
_

"_Unfortunately I do," Tim said burying his head in his hands._

"_Aww am I making you uncomfortable?" She laughed as she put her arm around him. _

"_What do you think?" He mumbled but she just laughed._

"_Don't worry I'll stop," She said as he looked up to her and shook his head. She just __stood up and headed to the door, "Come on lets get out of here," _

"_Ok," He said as he walked over to her where she handed him her bag carrying her laptop. She had to be honest having Tim here was useful._

"_Do I look like a pack horse?"  
_

"_Now that you mention it…" She said but stopped as he hit her lightly, "Aww I love you really," She said as she put her arm round him and they headed to the exit._


	4. Chapter 4: Home Part 1

_Here's Chapter 4 please read and review._

**Chapter 4 – Home Part 1**

Tony kissed Michelle's shoulder before she stood up allowing him to head back to the window. He continued trying to force one of the bars out of place. He knew if he could just get rid of a few of them then it would be big enough to get Tim and Michelle out but there was a down side. Like he'd told them they had no idea what was out there, where they were or anything, so trying to escape out of this window seemed pointless until they knew more about where they were. At the moment the only thing Tony could see was grass and trees which was useless as they could be just about anywhere.

Suddenly he was snapped out of his thoughts by the sound of the metal hitting his foot, "Christ," He screamed causing both Michelle and Tim to face him. Michelle quickly hurried over to him making sure he was ok; the only way he managed to stop her worrying was by asking her to keep a look out. Ok so one down; he just needed to get rid of at least another 2 bars possibly 3. The person who had put these here obviously didn't intend anyone to attempt escaping from them since they were packed so tightly together.

"Tony," Michelle called.

"Yeah," He said as he turned around and gave up on the bars for the moment.

"Do you have a plan?" She asked. Like him she was trained to think of how to get out of a situation like this. Like him as soon as they were left in this room by themselves she would have been thinking of plans to escape.

"We wait," He said.

"What's that supposed to mean?" She asked, he could understand where she was coming from it seemed pointless to just wait when they both knew there was a high chance the next time they came back it would be to kill them.

"Lets face it we're gonna have one chance to get out of here and I don't wanna mess it up. We don't know where we are, how many men there are or anything so until we at least have some means of getting out of here alive we wait and just try and think of possible safe ways outta here," He explained.

"Tony…"

"If they come back then we just pretend that we haven't done anything, Tim can tie us back up but leave it lose…just encase," He said and looked at Michelle, he knew that was what she was asking. He knew there was a chance they may have to fight their way out but as far as he was concerned it was a last resort since they were unarmed.

_Tony stormed into the situation room, slamming the door behind him which definitely got Chappelle's attention._

"_Ah Tony…"  
_

"_Cut the crap. Now you tell me what the hell is going on here! How the hell you got my wife and my son to agree to this so called safe mission…which we__ both know does not exist," He breathed angrily as he slammed his fist on the table._

"_You better watch how you talk to your superiors Almeida…"  
_

"_Oh what are you going to do? Run to Hammond and tell off me again?" _

"_Here," Chappelle said chucking him a file. He fli__cked it open and began reading. After 2 minutes he shut it and turned to Chappelle, "Happy now?"  
_

"_You call this a mission briefing? My two year old son could right more," He told him._

"_I find that hard to believe and if you are commenting on the brie__fing…"  
_

"_More like lack of," He__ interrupted._

"_Well I have only recently started work on this. Anyway all the details will have been sorted out by tomorrow when we'll have a full briefing,"  
_

"_You can't seriously expect us to be ready by Sunday," He said as he glanced over some of the pages.  
_

"_Well it's not like you need to learn anything about each other, just learn the careers for yourself and Michelle and your new last name," Chappelle told him._

"_Well the answer is no," He said as he closed the file, chucked it back to Chappelle and headed for the door._

"_You're really going to let them go while you sit at home?"  
_

"_They're not going either, none of us are going so find someone else to do your suicide mission,__" He told Chappelle, folding his arms._

"_It's just Intel gathering and Tony you maybe should have looked a little closer at the lack of a briefing as you put it," Chappelle said as took out a piece of paper and waved it in front of him. Tony moved over to see both Michelle and Tim's signatures on the paper, "They're coming and you can join them or we'll find a replacement. Now it really doesn't matter what you decide to do but we need an ans__wer by the end of the day," He just shook his head, he couldn't believe this._

"_So have y__ou got an answer?" Chappelle asked as he tucked the piece of paper away safely._

"_I'll call you," Tony breathed angrily. This couldn't be happening, how? Why would have they signed anything without telling him?_

"_Is that a yes?" Chappelle ask__ed. He just bowed his head; it seemed he didn't have any choice unless he could convince Tim and Michelle otherwise._

"_Just tell me one thing," He said.  
_

"_What?"_

"_What d__o you really want Tim for?" He asked as he moved closer. He wasn't dumb and knew they wanted Tim for something, well that was the only person he thought they did want. He and Michelle were just there as extras._

"_Nothing, he's just cover. What we want is you and Michelle as you are trained agents," Chappelle said while Tony just watched before he started laughing, _

"_Something funny Tony?"  
_

"_Nothing, just amazing at what lengths you'll go to not to tell the truth,"_

"_What is that supposed to mean?"  
_

"_You need Tim for something don't you, you don't care if I go or not just as long as he goes your mission has a chance so what is it you need him for?"  
_

"_Tony I really think you could use this time off you seem to be…"  
_

"_Paranoid? I know you and I'm not stupid. You only came up with this plan when you saw Tim which means he gave you an idea and it's not just about a family cover cause if you ever do go out you would have seen kids all over the place, which could have given you this idea. So I'll ask you again what is it that Tim can do that apparently no other field agent can?" _

"_Tony you can believe what you like but the truth is he's just your cover now if you don't mind I have to call Hammond," Chappelle said._

"_I'll find out and when I do I'll stop__ them from going you hear," He said as he moved over to the door. He had to find out what Chappelle was really planning then he could stop them_

"_So can I tell Brad it's a yes from you?"  
_

"_Fine but as soon as find out what you're using Tim for we'll all be out so just think about that," He yelled as he slammed the door behind him. He couldn't believe he had just agreed to it but Chappelle was right if he didn't go they'd find a replacement and that proved his point about them wanting Tim for something. A minute ago Chappelle had said he wanted him and Michelle but he'd also said they would find someone else if he said no, so in what weird reality did that make any sense to Chappelle. This was about Tim and he knew it, he just didn't know exactly what they wanted from him yet. He looked at his watch 7:00 pm he needed to get out of here. He headed to his office grabbed his stuff then got to the car to see both Michelle and Tim standing outside waiting for him._

"_Hey," She said as he approached them._

"_Let's go we told Lisa we'd pick up Conner an hour ago," He said as he put his bag in the boot before climbing into the driver's seat. Michelle got in the passengers seat and took his hand._

"_What happened with Chappelle?" She asked. He didn't even make eye contact as he took his hand back and started the car. He looked in the back to make sure Tim was in and then reversed out heading for his sister's place. He didn't want to be so cold to Michelle but he was just so angry and he didn't know who to be angry at. Chappelle, he was tricking all of them into this? Michelle because they always said they would never get their family involved? Tim because he'd said yes when he'd always told him not to get involved in this line of work? Or himself because he had a bad feeling about it and couldn't do anything to stop it? Who ever it was he just couldn't deal with it at the moment so to stop himself hurting Michelle or Tim even more then he might have already he just needed to not say anything for a while._

_He looked over to Michelle who was staring out of the window, he thought he could even see a tear in her eye but it might have been the rain outside pounding the car __as he drove along the highway. He looked over to see one of her hands resting in her lap while the other supported her head. He took one of his hands off the wheel and slowly moved it to take hers when the car in front suddenly swerved in front of him. Quickly he put his hand back on the wheel, yelling at the driver in front of him. When he looked back at her she was looking in her bag for something so he focused back on the road. If only she knew how he felt._

"_Lisa," He heard her say and looked over quickly to see her on her mobile, "Yeah I'm so sorry…is he ok?…ok we're on our way now…and I'm so sorry again it's just…yeah…yeah he's here…forgot his keys…ok thanks…we'll see you soon…bye,"  
_

_Tony didn't say anything as he continued to drive, he could pretty much guess their conversation and didn't need to ask any questions. His sister was always there when they needed her and she loved looking after Conner and Tim even though he was old enough to look after himself. She also knew what their work was like and so never expected them to collect Conner when they said they would or be home when they said they would. She was definitely one of the best sisters he could ask for, she'd even moved down to live near them after everything happened which resulting in Tim living with them. She'd given up her more partying lifestyle and had even settled on one guy, who was apparently the love of her life. Tony was very happy for since she used to move from guy to guy quite easily and never settled with them for long but she was now with Jason and had been for several months. Unfortunately he had to go away on business for 2 weeks so Lisa didn't mind looking after Conner since she said it gave her something to take her mind of Jason being gone._

_As he pulled up in the drive way he looked to Michelle but she was still looking out of the window. As soon as he turned off the ignition Tim was out of the car and just as Michelle was about to leave he grabbed her hand._

"_Chelle…"  
_

"_Look Tony if you want to yell at me or argue with me then lets not do it here in front of the kids ok we'll talk at home," She said and got out of the car. That wasn't what he'd wanted to say nor what he'd expected her to say but like she'd said they couldn't do it here. He looked up and saw both and her and Tim waiting by the door. Quickly he got out of the car and joined them just in time for the door to open to reveal his sister. She wasn't that tall, just a bit shorter then Michelle. Her hair like his was thick and dark, although not as dark as his. Also like him she had dark skin and the deep brown eyes. It was easy to tell they were related._

"_Hey," Lisa said as she flung her arms around him and kissed his cheek._

"_Hey sis," He said as he stepped inside, "Where is he?"  
_

"_Living room," She said as she hugged Michelle._

"_k," He said as he headed into the living room to find Conner kicking a small football, which Tim had gotten him at his toys which were now sprawled out on the floor. He looked down at his son. His hair was more Michelle's colour then his own but it was no where near as curly as Michelle's. Everyone said he had inherited the dark brown eyes from father and the skin complexion. Tim had even joked by saying they should call him mini Tony, which resulted in Michelle saying that one was definitely enough. He was walking and talking and Tim had already gotten him interested in football saying he'd train him which Michelle had not been so happy about. Conner wasn't tall for his age nor was he short but more average and like his mother had an amazing appetite which didn't show up on his figure. _

"_So who's winning?" He asked as Conner sent the ball flying into his toys again._

"_Daddy," Conner called out as he turned to face him. He crouched down as Conner came running into his arms._

"_Hey mate," He said as he picked his son up before tickling him which Conner screamed at._

"_Daddy…stop…dad…" Conner laughed. After a few more moments he stopped and placed Conner on the floor._

"_How about you pack up your toys so we can go home," He said while Conner just nodded at him._

_Once he set Conner on the floor he just_ _watched as Conner ran around collecting his toys. He had to be honest he loved being a dad. He loved it more then anything well maybe apart from being married to Michelle. Unfortunately when Tim had been growing up he'd missed out on all the little things which he was sure was what he loved the most. The fact that whenever he came home Conner would run into arms, and no matter what time it was, 6 in the morning or 4 in the afternoon he always wanted to play. He came out of his daydream and started helping Conner pack up his toys. After a few minutes they were done so he picked up the bag and turned to Conner noticing one vital toy was missing._

"_Where's Jack?" He asked which sent Conner running as fast as he could out of the room. He came back a moment later holding his favourite cuddly toy. It was a pink bear holding a heart saying I love you that Kate had brought for Conner when she thought he was going to be a girl, which they had decided to call Jack. They were all sure it was going to end up under the bed with all his other toys but Conner seemed to love it as it was named after his uncle Jack. It made everyone laugh when they heard who it was named after, knowing that was the last thing they expected Jack Bauer to do. _

"_Ready to go?" Tony asked as Conner clutched his toy._

_Conner just nod__ded before heading for the door, "Mommy," He heard Conner call as he followed. When he got there he saw Michelle picking Conner up and planting kisses all over his face which he screamed in delight at. _

"_Got everything?" Lisa asked him._

"_Yeah," He said as he patted the bag and moved to the door._

"_Hope you don't mind but since Lisa hasn't eaten I said she could come b__ack to ours and then I could order takeaway," Michelle said as she set Conner on the floor. Tony just watched as Conner as he tugged at Tim before he picked him up._

"_God you're more lazy then I am," Tim said to Conner._

"_No," Conner protested.  
_

"_Yes,"_

"_No,"  
_

"_Yes,"  
_

"_No,"_

"_Yes," Tim laughed_

"_no in...finny…vive," Conner said._

"_Ah close enough you win," Tim said which made them all smile._

"_Tony?" Michelle asked._

"_Yeah that's fine," He smiled as he ruffled Conner's hair._

"_Daddy," Tony just smiled as he headed to the car, the rest following apart from Conner who Tim carried. Once they were at the car Michelle went to help Tim put Conner in his seat while he and Lisa got in the car. Once they were done Tony headed for their house._

* * *

Tim just lay there as he watched his dad struggle with the bars and Michelle listen for anyone. 

"Damn it," He heard his dad say and looked over to him, "Don't think it's gonna budge," With that his dad went looking round the rest of the room while Michelle came back and sat next to him.

"So you've done this before right, how long does it take them to come and get us?" He asked even though he knew it was unlikely they would even know they were missing.

"Don't worry they'll come," She smiled at him even though he could see she was terrified.

"_So how long is he gonna be?" He asked as he lent back against the car._

"_Not sure but at the moment I don't feel l__ike going to calm him down," Michelle said as she rubbed her head._

"_You ok?" He asked, he could see she wasn't. No matter how much they denied it he knew this job took a lot out of his dad and Michelle, it had been the same with his mum._

"_Yeah I'm fine, just tired,"_

"_Ok," He also knew there was no point in pushing the subject because it wouldn't help at all. When she needed to talk she'd talk to his dad. As he looked back up he saw his dad walking over to them._

"_Hey," Michelle said as he approached them._

"_Let's go we told Lisa we'd pick up Conner an hour ago," His dad said as he put his bag in the boot before climbing into the driver's seat. Michelle got in the passengers seat while he jumped in the back._

"_What happened with Chappelle?" She asked. His dad didn't say anything as he started the car. He knew this meant his dad was pissed off and so decided it would be best if he just kept quiet. He just sat quietly the whole journey, knowing that it was one of those times that his dad would probably snap if he said anything. Not even Michelle had tried to make conversation after he had ignored her two times. The only other thing that had been said was when Michelle had called Lisa. _

_As soon as his dad parked the car he jumped out and headed to the door leaving his dad and Michelle inside, at the moment he'd rather be as far away as possible. He rang the doorbell and looked round to see Michelle get out of the car and walk over to him; from the look on her face whatever had just been said had not made things any better. A few moments later his dad was waiting with them as Lisa opened the door._

"_Hey," Lisa said as she flung her arms around his dad and kissed his cheek._

"_Hey sis," He said as he stepped inside, "Where is he?"  
_

"_Living room," She said as she hugged Michelle._

"_k," His dad said as he headed off._

"_What's up with him__?" Lisa asked as he came inside._

"_Long story," Michelle said._

"_What you done now?" Lisa asked him._

"_What? Nothing," He said defensively._

"_Ok, ok calm down," She laughed as she hugged him, "So what's really going on then?"  
_

"_Short version?" Michelle asked and Lisa nodded, "There's a mission our boss wants us to go on, all three of us…and as far as I can see its safe but Tony's…"  
_

"_Over reacting," Lisa finished for her._

"_He just won't even listen and now he's in one of his moods," Michelle explained._

"_Ah so glad I don't have to put up with those anymore,"  
_

"_Yep but I do at home and at work." Michelle sighed. He just stood there and let them talk it out, not really knowing what to do. Normally when they started talking like this he would go off with Conner and his dad but at the moment it was safer to just stay there._

"_Look I haven't eaten yet and I know you guys won't have so why don't I come back with you, we can get take away and I'll keep the peace," Lisa suggested._

"_No its ok Lisa you don't have to, you've already looked after Conner all day…"  
_

"_Who said I didn't want to, free food and drink I'd be mad not to come,"  
_

"_Even with your moody brother,"  
_

"_Yep even with my moody brother," She smiled, "Come on Michelle I can see how upset you are by this so if I'm there he'll calm down and you guys can work it out,"_

"_Ok if you don't mind," _

"_Of course I don't," Lisa smiled, "And you be good," She said as she turned to him._

"_What?" He asked realising that they did know he was still there._

"_Let's just say you and your father have certain traits in common. Like you both don't know when to let it go…"  
_

"_What?" He said, yes it was true but he would never admit it_

"_Mo__mmy," He heard Conner call, as he turned round to see Conner running towards them._

"_Just don't do anything stupid," Lisa smiled at him and he nodded knowing what she meant. He looked back to see Michelle picking Conner up and planting kisses all over his face which he screamed in delight at. _

"_Got everything?" Lisa asked his dad as he emerged from the living room._

"_Yeah," He said as he patted the bag and moved to the door._

"_Hope you don't mind but since Lisa hasn't eaten I said she could come back to ours and then I could__ order takeaway," Michelle said as she set Conner on the floor. Tim just watched as Conner came over to him and started tugging at his top. _

"_God you're more lazy then I am," He said as he picked him up._

"_No," Conner protested.  
_

"_Yes,"_

"_No,"  
_

"_Yes,"  
_

"_No,"_

"_Yes," H__e laughed_

"N_o in...finny…vive," Conner said. He had to admit Conner was getting better at talking. At least this time he actually knew what Conner was trying to say, most of the other times he'd just nod and smile, it seemed to work._

"_Ah close enough you win," He said which made them all smile; well at least his dad wasn't too mad otherwise he wouldn't have smiled then._

"_Tony?" Michelle asked._

"_Yeah that's fine," His dad smiled as he ruffled Conner's hair._

"_Daddy," Conner called out as they all headed to the car. Tim just carried him over; he did like having a younger brother._

* * *

Michelle just looked down at Tim; he looked so scared just like she was. She wished they would come but the truth was CTU probably wouldn't even know they were missing yet. 

"I'm sorry," Tim said as she looked to him.

"Tim we've already told you it's not your fault,"

"I meant about last night I shouldn't have…"

"Don't worry about it," She said as she started stroking his hair.

"But…"

"What you want us to punish you?"

"No it's just…"

"At the moment all we care about is getting out of here ok," She told him, she was sure he didn't actually know how much danger they were in but that was probably a good thing.

."Ok,"

"_So how long is he gonna be?" Tim __asked as he lent back against the car._

"_Not sure but at the moment I don't feel like going to calm him down," She said as she rubbed her head, this day really did go up with the other crap days she'd had._

"_You ok?" He asked. No she was tired, upset, and angry, she just wanted to get out of here and make things better with Tony._

"_Yeah I'm fine, just tired,"_

"_Ok," Luckily Tim didn't press the matter. When she looked back towards the door she saw Tony._

"_Hey," She said as he approached them._

"_Let's go we told Lisa we'd pick up Conner an hour ago," He said as he put his bag in the boot before climbing into the driver's seat. She got in the passengers seat and took his hand while Tim got in the back._

"_What happened with Chappelle?" She asked. He didn't even make eye contact as he took his hand back and started the car. She couldn't believe he was being like this. He knew she was trying to make things better yet he wouldn't even talk to her. She didn't want to argue, she was too tired and she couldn't face looking at him knowing he was mad at her. So she just stared out of the window at the rain as pound__ed the car. Suddenly she felt the car swerve and Tony muttering words at the other driver. She thought she should call Lisa and let her know they where on their way. She rummaged around in her bag until she found her phone. After a few rings she picked up._

"_Lisa,"_

"_Oh hey Michelle, where are you guys it's like 7:30?"_

"_Yeah I'm so sorry,"  
_

"_Hey don't worry about it I know you're never on time with that job,"_

"_Is he ok?" She asked, she hated leaving Conner with her longer then they said but the job always got in the way. Even though Lisa said she didn't mind she still felt bad._

"_Yeah he's fine still very lively,"  
_

"_Ok we're on our way now,"  
_

"_Ok I'll see you soon,"_

"_And I'm so sorry again it's just,"  
_

"_You don't need to explain I know,"_

"_Yeah,"_

"_Anyway I take it my other nephew's with you," Lisa said._

"_Yeah he's here,"  
_

"_Thought so, was sure he would have turned up here by now otherwise. So why's he with you?" Lisa asked.  
_

"_Forgot his keys," As always.  
_

"_Ah right well I'll go try and get Conner ready for you,"  
_

"_Ok thanks,"  
_

"_No problem,"  
_

"_We'll see you soon,"  
_

"O_k see ya,"_

"_Bye," She said and hung up.  
_

_After about 10 more minutes they arrived at Lisa's. As soon as Tony turned off the ignition Tim was out of the car and just as she was about to leave he grabbed her hand._

"_Chelle…"  
_

"_Look Tony if you want to yell at me or argue with me then lets not do it here in front of the kids ok we'll talk at home," She said and got out of the car. She really wasn't in the mood for arguing. They just needed to get Conner and go home, __and then they could sort things out. After a few moments Lisa answered the door._

"_Hey," Lisa said as she flung her arms around Tony and kissed his cheek._

"_Hey sis," He said as he stepped inside, "Where is he?"  
_

"_Living room," Lisa said as she hugged Michelle._

"_k," Tony said as he headed off._

"_What's up with him__?" Lisa asked._

"_Long story," She said._

"_What you done now?" Lisa asked Tim_

"_What? Nothing," He said defensively._

"_Ok, ok calm down," She laughed as she hugged him, "So what's really going on then?"  
_

"_Short version?" She asked and Lisa nodded, "There's a mission our boss wants us to go on, all three of us…and as far as I can see its safe but Tony's…"  
_

"_Over reacting," Lisa finished for her._

"_He just won't even listen and now he's in one of his moods," She explained, she really hated when Tony got like this. There was really nothing she could do until he felt like talking, otherwise they'd just end up arguing and that never worked._

"_Ah so glad I don't have to put up with those anymore,"  
_

"_Yep but I do at home and at work." She sighed. That was one of the down sides of working with your husband._

"_Look I haven't eaten yet and I know you guys won't have so why don't I come back with you, we can get take away and I'll keep the peace," Lisa suggested._

"_No its ok Lisa you don't have to, you've already looked after Conner all day…" She__ felt bad putting this on Lisa, they could sort things out themselves.  
_

"_Who said I didn't want to, free food and drink I'd be mad not to come,"  
_

"_Even with your moody brother,"  
_

"_Yep even with my moody brother," She smiled, "Come on Michelle I can see how upset you are by this so if I'm there he'll calm down and you guys can work it out,"_

"_Ok if you don't mind," _

"_Of course I don't," Lisa smiled, "And you be good," She said as she turned to Tim._

"_What?" He asked._

"_Let's just say you and your father have certain traits in common. Like you both don't know when to let it go…"  
_

"_What?" He said, it was so true. Tim was so much like Tony in some ways yet both of them would always deny it._

"_Mo__mmy," She heard Conner call and turned round to see him running towards them._

"_Just don't do anything stupid,"__ She heard Lisa say as she bent down picking Conner up and then planting kisses all over his face which he screamed in delight at. _

"_Got ever__ything?" Lisa asked Tony as he emerged from the living room._

"_Yeah," He said as he patted the bag and moved to the door._

"_Hope you don't mind but since Lisa hasn't eaten I said she could come back to ours and then I could go out and get takeaway," She said as she set Conner on the floor.__ She just looked to Tony who didn't say anything, so she followed his eyes to Tim and Conner. _

"_God you're more lazy then I am," Tim said as he picked Conner up._

"_No," Conner protested.  
_

"_Yes,"_

"_No,"  
_

"_Yes,"  
_

"_No,"_

"_Yes," Tim laughed_

"_Am not in...finny…vive," Conner said._

"_Ah close enough you win," Tim said which made them all smile._

"_Tony?" She asked, maybe now he would talk to her._

"_Yeah that's fine," Tony smiled as he ruffled Conner's hair._

"_Daddy," Conner called out as they all headed to the car. __Well it was a start, if Conner could make Tony smile all hope was not lost._


	5. Chapter 5: Home Part 2

_Here's chapter 5 enjoy and please R&R. _

_I know __D.D said they wanted more of their escape in the story and there will be more, a lot more but at the moment it's just about a paragraph for each of them every chapter until the flashbacks catch up to what's happening and that happens at about chapter 20 if I keep to what I've written so far. But there will be a lot more action in them in a few chapters time._

**Chapter 5- Home Part 2**

This wasn't working, he had mentally tried every possible way of escape and none of them were looking good. The best he had so far was escaping through the window. But that was now not an options as he couldn't ply out any more of the bars. So really the only other possible means of escape was fighting their way out and he really, really didn't want to have to do that. Maybe they would come for them, realise they were missing…but it was unlikely. They didn't even have to check in with Chase until that night and it was still light outside. He didn't know the exact time since they had removed his watch but he was pretty certain by the time they realised they were missing it would be too late…just like it had been for Will.

_10 minutes later they arrived home and were as usual greeted by the barking from their 1 year old golden Labrador, Jess. She had been an anniversary present from Lisa. Both he and Michelle had been slightly reluctant at first as their lives were already packed from work and the kids but after just 1 day they'd fallen in love with her and couldn't imagine giving her back. _

"_Down Jess," Tim said as he entered, immediately she obeyed and ran off into the house still barking. Tony followed him in and held the door open for Lisa and Michelle who carried Conner in. _

"_I'm gonna get this one to bed," Michelle said __as she headed up the stairs. He just watched as Conner tiredly protested but knew his mother would win and so gave up. After shutting the door he headed into the lounge hearing the barks still coming from Jess. Their house was gigantic compared to his and Michelle's old apartments. They had moved here shortly after getting married. The five bedrooms, three bath roomed house had seemed slightly big for them when they had first looked at it but shortly after their wedding they had found out Michelle was pregnant. So with a new baby on the way, which they both knew would definitely not be the last addition to their family they had decided to take it. Unfortunately when they had seen the price attached to it they had known it had been too good to be true so they looked at some other places but none had seemed as good._

_Then two weeks later Jack and Kate had taken them out to lunch as they helped them with their house hunting. Kate had insisted on seeing the amazing house that they had both been on about so they had stopped off at the house only to find a for sale sign outside it. After a few moments Kate had handed a key to Michelle telling her that it was her birthday present. Tony remembered how Michelle had said it wasn't her birthday for another two weeks which Kate had nodded at but said she couldn't wait any longer. After a few minutes and some talking they had both realised that Kate had brought them the house. They had both told her she didn't have too, that it was far, far too much. She had said that she had put it in their names and it was theirs. She explained that after everything they had done for her, how they had helped her family this was nothing. After protesting for a while they gave up and ended up continuously thanking her. They asked her how she had known and she told them how she had asked Tim for an idea for her birthday present which as a joke Tim had said the house, forgetting that she actually had the money to buy it. But it was one of the most amazing gifts they had ever received. _

_Their house was just right for them. The lounge, dinning room and kitchen all merged into one long room. The lounge had the usual wide screen T.V, several couches, Conner's toys, DVD collection, Michelle's magazines and the other family essentials. The dinning area was simple, a large oak table which could seat eight people. There wasn't anything else really to it. Then the kitchen, it had counters which ran along side the walls of the house then in the middle was a counter which was used as a second table. By the kitchen on the left was the door to the back garden. Then straight on down the hall was his and Michelle bedroom with an on suite bathroom. In the hall there were two other doors, the one nearest to theirs was another bathroom and then the other which was nearer the kitchen was Tim's room. Upstairs there were three bedrooms and one bathroom. One was Conner's room, one he and Michelle had turned into a study and the other was their guest room. Or at least it was until the next addition to their family, which should be sometime soon since he and Michelle still couldn't keep their hands off each other for long. Tony smiled at the thought before he was brought back to reality by Jess' barking._

"_Jess," He snapped as he headed to the kitchen. Both Lisa and Tim looked at him from the counter before Tim got up._

"_I'll take her outside," Tim said as he grabbed Jess' collar leading her to the back door._

"_So what's going on?" Lisa asked._

"_Huh?"  
_

"_Well let's just say you're not in the best of moods," _

"_It's nothing," He__ said as he headed to her._

"_Tony I'm your sister, I know when something is wrong," She said._

"_It's a long story and it's best if we don't get into it now," He told her as he sat down._

"_Fine then," Sh__e said. He knew she had only given in because he was apparently more stubborn then anyone else in their family._

"_Well that's one down," Michelle said as she walked towards him._

"_He's asleep already?" He asked, Conner normally liked to stay awake as long as possible and so he normally ended up reading him at least two stories before he fell asleep. _

"_Yep. You must have really tired him out today," Michelle said to Lisa as she came to a halt by the counter._

"_Think he tired himself out with that football," Lisa said._

"_He didn't break anything did he?" Michelle asked._

"_Nope he doesn't have as strong a kick as my other lovely nephew," Lisa said._

"_Which __one? You got five of them," He smiled as he remembered when Tim had managed to shatter one of Lisa's windows._

"_Yeah that reminds me when am I going to get a niece? I mean I love my nephews but I think it's time one of you lot had a girl," She said._

"_Well we thought we'd leave that for you," He laughed as her face turned pale._

"_Don't start me on kids," Lisa said._

"_What? You do great with Conner and Tim," Michelle said._

"_Yeah but well…lets just say it's easier when you can be a cool aunt instead of having to punish them," _

"_Ok, well I'm just gonna go get out of these clothes," Michelle said and headed off down the hall to their room._

"_So what's wrong?" Lisa asked turning to him._

"_Nothing,"  
_

"_Really because when Michelle normally says that you're down that hall like a shot," __Lisa said and they both laughed, she was right and he needed to sort his out._

"_I'll be right back," He said as he followed Michelle, "Oh there's some wine in the fridge by the way," He said knowing she'd be in there as soon as he was out of sight. He walked into their room to see Michelle looking through the closet for something to wear, she only noticed him after he shut the door._

"_Hey," She said as she turned round but she didn't smile like she normally did, instead she just went back to looking at her clothes.__ That meant he had to make the first move. _

"_Michelle…"  
_

"_Let's not do this now, not when you're sister's here and not when the kids are around…"  
_

"_So what we're not going to talk about __it at all," He snapped, mentally kicking himself…he was trying to fix this but he'd just blurted it out._

"_Fine Tony you want to talk about it then lets have some great big argument in front of everyone is that what you want?" She yelled at him. He deserved that because he knew she was right. It was not the time to talk about it._

"_No,"  
_

"_Well then we won't talk about it," She said as she turned back to the clothes._

"_We can't do it Chelle,"  
_

"_So when I said lets not do this now what did that mean to you?" She asked angrily._

"_Well you say that every time I try to talk to you about it so if you have your way we'll just talk about it when we're there and in my opinion that's a little too late!" He couldn't stop __himself he just kept blurting things out._

"_I'm not talking about this now so just…"  
_

"_What shut up keep my opinions to myself?"  
_

"_Tony…"  
_

"_What Chelle I thought we could always talk to each other, you know that thing called an honest relationship,"  
_

"_Yeah and what about trust…"  
_

"_Oh so we want to talk about trust, wouldn't have trust have been coming to talk to me before signing on to this mission,"_

"_I said I'd do it, I haven't signed anything yet, so there is still time to back out…"  
_

"_Don't lie to me I saw the piece of paper with yours and Tim's signatures on it…"  
_

"_Tony I never signed anything," _

"_Oh," This wasn't good, Chappelle had tricked him. He wasn't sure what to think, he just needed time to figure everything out.  
_

"_So are we done now,"__ She was clearly angry and so he knew not to start another argument.  
_

"_Only if you promise we will talk about this," He said._

"_Fine," She said as she picked out a pair of jeans and tank top. He just stood for a while watching her. __She was obviously not going to try and fix this anytime soon and his last attempt had failed miserably, so he needed a different approach. Eventually he knew how he'd have to break the silence._

"_I…I'm sorry ok," He said._

"_For what?" She asked. She wasn't going to make this easy then but since he had shot down her attempts earlier he didn't blame her._

"_For acting like a jerk," She just looked at him, "Ok I was wrong to yell at you and Tim, it was the wrong thing to do so I'm sorry for that but I'm not sorry for trying to stop you…"  
_

"_Tony…"  
_

"_Look you don't want to talk about this now, ok fine we'll talk tomorrow but please think about what I've said," _

"_Fine,"__ She breathed. There was silence for a few moments as they just looked at each other. It was now or never, this would either fix things or make her even angrier at him. Praying it would be the first he opened his mouth to speak.  
_

"_Look…if we're not talking about it tonight then…can we just act like nothings happened?" He asked as she just stood and looked at him._

"_So we're just going to pretend like nothings happened today?"  
_

"_That's the idea," He said softly and he was sure he could see a smile playing on her lips.__ That was a good sign; if she was really angry she would have yelled at him and stormed out of the room already._

"_You're missing not being able to touch me," She said while he just bit his lip to stop the smile on his face, __thank god she didn't want to fight anymore, "I'm gonna take that as a yes,"  
_

"_Chelle I hate having fights with you, I hate us being angry at each other and what you said…"_

"_Me too," She smiled as she moved over to him, "But I know you just can't stand not being able to kiss me," She laughed._

"_Guess you know me too well then," He smiled as his lips met hers. After a few moments she pulled back and starting undressing while he just watched. Suddenly she noticed as she threw her blouse to the floor._

"_Oi perve," She said and he looked up to meet her eyes._

"_Yes sweetheart," He smiled while she just rolled her eyes.__ Things would be ok…well at least for tonight._

"_Get changed and stop gawking at me,"  
_

"_Ah but I can't help it when my wife is so beautiful and sexy," He said as he moved over to her, wrapping his arms around her waist and kissing her neck._

"_Tony," _

"_Yeah," He said in between kisses. _

"_You know it makes it awfully hard to get changed when you do that,"  
_

"_So don't get changed,"  
_

"_Believe it or not I'm not going to walk around naked,"  
_

"_Why?"  
_

"_Cause your sister and son are out there,"  
_

"_True so let's just stay here," He said as he spun her around in his arms so they were face to face._

"_Tony…stop,"  
_

"_But…" He started as she pulled out of his arms and pulled on her top._

"_Later," She winked at him and he just smiled, "But for now get changed and let me go and order food cause I'm starving,"_

"_Ok," He said as he went and pulled out a pair of jeans and his sexy black shirt as Michelle called it. He started getting dressed as she left the room. A few minutes later he walked out into the lounge to find Michelle and Lisa doing their best to get rid of the wine as fast as possible while Tim lay on the couch flicking through the channels with Jess' head resting on his stomach._

"_You just want me to get you a straw, it'll be faster," He said._

"_Oi cheeky," Michelle said as she hit him lightly. Tim turned round to look at them as he helped Michelle up before sitting down and pulling her into his lap. He just looked at the expression on Tim's face; he obviously wasn't expecting them to be joking with each other._

"_We're pretending nothing has happened for tonight," He told Tim._

"_Right so it means I don't get grounded until tomorrow," Tim said as he turned back to the T.V.__ One down one to go._

"_Turn it off a second,"  
_

"_Why?" Ti__m asked still obviously sulking, he'd already apologized to Michelle which wasn't that easy, why couldn't Tim just let it go?_

"_Look we're not talking about it tonight so just act like nothing has happened so we can enjoy it," He said hoping Tim would understand._

"_What's the point I don't listen to anything you say remember,"  
_

"_Tim we don't think that," Michelle said straight away._

"_Dad does," Tim__ said but stayed facing the T.V. Straight away both Lisa and Michelle looked at him. He knew if they'd been alone with him they would have both had a go at him._

"_Tim I didn't mean it, I was just angry at…"  
_

"_At me so you told me what you really thought," Tim interrupted him. No he didn't think that he was just angry at the time and not with Tim. He didn't want Tim to think that was what he really thought of him because it wasn't; it was just said in the heat of the moment._

"_No mate I was just angry at the situation…"  
_

"_Which I caused," Tony didn't know what to say every time he tried to explain Tim found a new way to blame himself._

"_Tim look remember what we talked about," Michelle said._

"_Yeah," Tim said after a minute._

"_So just think about it,"_

"_Whatever," He said as he got up causing Jess to jump up as well__. As Tim went to walk past he grabbed his arm pulling him back._

"_I'm sorry ok," He said. He was hoping Tim wasn't in a mood to fight about it because he really did just want to forget about everything that had happened today. For a moment Tim just looked at him and then Michelle._

"_Fine," Tim__ said rubbing his head before sitting back down. Tony just watched before he noticed he felt lighter. He looked back to see Michelle standing._

"_Where are you going?" He asked as he tried to pull her back into his lap._

"_More wine" She said and he just laughed, "What?"  
_

"_Wanna get those straws while you're there," He said which caused Tim to laugh and Lisa to hit him before getting up to go help Michelle._

"_Come here," He said as both Lisa and Michelle were in the kitchen. Tim didn't say anything but did as he said._

"_Look I'm sorry for what I said," He said as he put his arm around him, "I haven't had the b__est day today…you remember Will right?"  
_

"_Yeah he was the one who gave me that cap gun," Tim smiled._

"_Which you shot your m__om with…"  
_

"_Accidentally…" He protested.  
_

"_Yeah still shot…"  
_

"_Well she took it away and destroyed it so…" Tim__ started.  
_

"_Yeah anyway,"  
_

"_Sorry,"  
_

"_Um well…Will__ was killed today," He told Tim.  
_

"_I'm sorry dad,"  
_

"_Yeah…well…"  
_

"_So that's why you were pissed off earlier"__ Yep get straight to the point nice Tim.  
_

"_Yeah I guess,"_

"_Sorry I didn't know," Tim said._

"_It's ok, it's just with that…well you know I didn't mean what I said it was stupid and well today has not been a good day. So um do you forgive me?"  
_

"_Yeah," Tim said and looked to him._

"_Thanks mate," He said as he hugged him. He looked back up in time to see Michelle and Lisa come back in with another bottle of wine and their glasses, "So where's mine?"  
_

"_With the straws," Michelle smiled at him._

"_Chelle,"  
_

"_Yes honey," _

"_Never mind," He said as he got up and headed to get a beer. Just as he returned he heard a knock at the door._

"_That was quick," Lisa said._

"_Yeah well you tend to get good service when you're brother's ex-wife's family own the place. And since they are still working things out or whatever we get priority," Michelle smiled at her as he opened the door and paid the delivery man. The rest of the night went by quickly with not another word being said about the mission. They were laughing and had drunk quite a lot, but it was a hard day and so Tony thought it was deserved. Eventually at 1:00 am he and Michelle stumbled into their room. Tim had left as soon as it was obvious that they had drunk enough not to care if people saw what they were doing. And soon after that even Lisa, who was normally the one making people uncomfortable headed to the guest room. Tony didn't even notice as they fell onto the bed. He only realised where they were when Michelle started unbuttoning his shirt._

"_Sweetie we can't do this here what about my sister?" He laughed._

"_Ah Tony we're in our room," She giggled as she threw his shirt to the floor._

"_So we are," He said as he looked around, "And we're alone,"  
_

"_Well that does tend to happen since it's our room," She laughed at him._

"_Yeah so you know what that means," He smiled at her seductively._

"_Sweetheart I have been removing your clothes for the last minute I thought you may have caught on by now," She laughed again as he looked down and realised that he was naked.  
_

"_What hey you should be naked too," He slurred slightly realising that last beer may have been one too many._

"_Well normally you manage to get me naked,"  
_

"_Oh yeah," He smiled as he reached over and tried to take her clothes off. After a few moments he looked up at her._

"_How much did you drink?" She laughed as it was clear he was getting no where._

"_Um I dunno…Chelle why won't your clothes come off?"  
_

"_You want some help?" She asked as she started removing her clothes._

"_See now if you had just stayed naked earlier like I said we wouldn't have this problem would we," He smiled._

"_If you weren't so drunk we wouldn't have this problem,"  
_

"_I'm not," He said pretending to sound hurt._

"_If you lie to me we don't have sex," she said._

"_I'm drunk I'm drunk now…" __He didn't finish as her lips met his._

* * *

Tim had managed to prop himself up against one of the walls with Michelle's help. His dad was still exploring every inch of the room, by the looks of things he had given up on the window for now. He just sat there wondering if he should tell them what had really happened last night, how he had really found out the truth about Landon but he just couldn't bring himself to do it. To be honest it was his fault, he'd blown their cover, anything else he told them would just make it worse. 

_As they arrived home as usual they greeted by the barking from their 1 year old golden Labrador, Jess. _

"_Down Jess," Tim said as he entered, immediately she obeyed and ran off into the house still barking. His dad followed him in and held the door open for Lisa and Michelle who carried Conner in. _

"_I'm gonna get this one to bed," Michelle said as she headed up the stairs. Tim half heard as he continued into their house trying to calm Jess down. At the moment just about anything could make his dad snap and Jess was not helping. After a few moments she settled and he went and sat down at the counter. Then she started barking again._

"_Jess," His dad snapped as he headed to the kitchen. He looked to Lisa who was sitting at the counter with him. He knew he should intervene._

"_I'll take her outside," He said as he grabbed Jess' collar leading her to the back door. Once outside he grabbed one of Jess' balls and started throwing it for her, hopefully it would be enough for her to tire herself out and not spend the rest of the evening running around the house. After 10 minutes or so he'd had enough and luckily so had Jess so he headed back inside. He looked around the kitchen but couldn't see anyone; he then headed into the lounge to find Lisa hugging the wine bottle._

"_Hey," She said as she poured herself a glass, no doubt her second at least._

"_Hey," He said as he lay down on the other couch and turned on the T.V. As usual a minute later Jess had joined him laying her head on him._

"_So how's dad?" He asked._

"_Gone to talk to Michelle so hopefully ok," She smiled at him._

"O_k," Was all he said as he settled his attention on the T.V. The next time he looked up he saw Michelle heading towards them._

"_And?" Lisa asked._

"_Better," Was all Michelle said about his dad, "Now where's my glass?"  
_

"_Here," Lisa said pouring her some wine._

"_So how's life without Jason?" Michelle asked. Oh good more girly talk just what he wanted._

"_Ok I just miss him, I mean he calls me everyday but still two weeks is a long time,"  
_

"_Yeah I know I hate it when Tony or I have to go away," Michelle said. After that sentence he knew the rest wasn't worth listening to. So he turned back to the T.V. in hopes of finding something to keep him entertained. _

"_You just want me to get you a straw, it'll be faster," He heard his dad say._

"_Oi cheeky," Michelle said as she hit him lightly. He turned round to look at them as his dad helped Michelle up before sitting down and pulling her into his lap. This wasn't right, they were fighting and now they were..._

"_We're pretending nothing has happened for tonight," His dad told him. That didn't mean anything apart from the fact that nothing would happen to him tonight._

"_Right so it means I don't get grounded until tomorrow," He said as he turned back to the T.V._

"_Turn it off a second,"  
_

"_Why?" He asked, there was no point pretending nothing had happened because all that would happen was his dad wouldn't yell at him until tomorrow._

"_Look we're not talking about it tonight so just act like nothing has happened so we can enjoy it," __His dad said. What was the point he'd still be mad tomorrow, it wasn't like it was just going to go away._

"_What's the point I don't listen to anything you say remember,"  
_

"_Tim we don't think that," Michelle said straight away._

"_Dad does," He said but stayed facing the T.V. Ok so now probably wasn't the best time to bring that up and he knew that it probably wasn't true but he was angry to._

"_Tim I didn't mean it, I was just angry at…"  
_

"_At me so you told me what you really thought," He interrupted him. _

"_No mate I was just angry at the situation…"  
_

"_Which I caused," He knew this was not the best way to handle this situation but he couldn't stop himself blurting things out._

"_Tim look remember what we talked about," Michelle said._

"_Yeah," He said after a minute._

"_So just think about it,"_

"_Whatever," He said as he got up causing Jess to jump up as well. His dad grabbed his arm pulling him back as he walked past._

"_I'm sorry ok," His dad said. So maybe he should say sorry as well but his dad had just been acting like a jerk and he wasn't in the best moods himself. For a moment he just looked at his dad and then Michelle._

"_Fine," He said rubbing his head before sitting back down. _

"_Where are you going?" His dad asked as he tried to pull Michelle back into his lap._

"_More wine" She said and he just laughed, "What?"  
_

"_Wanna get those straws while you're there," His dad said which caused him to laugh and Lisa to hit his dad before getting up to go help Michelle._

"_Come here," His dad said as both Lisa and Michelle were in the kitchen. Tim didn't say anything but did as he said._

"_Look I'm sorry for what I said," His dad said as he put his arm around him, "I haven't had the __best day today…you remember Will right?"  
_

"_Yeah he was the one who gave me that cap gun," Tim smiled._

"_Which you shot your mum with__…"  
_

"_Accidentally…" He protested, it was definitely an accident an__d he remembered the lecture which must have gone on for almost an hour. A personal record if he was honest.  
_

"_Yeah still shot…"  
_

"_Well she took it away and destroyed it so…" He started.  
_

"_Yeah anyway," His dad said  
_

"_S__orry," He knew he was supposed to be listening.  
_

"_Um well…Will__ was killed today,"  
_

"_I'm sorry dad," He said__, personally he'd only met Will a few times but he knew his dad had been close to him especially from the stories Will had told him.  
_

"_Yeah…well…"  
_

"_So that's why you were pissed off earlier" He said meaning it to be in his head.  
_

"_Yeah I guess,"_

"_Sorry I didn't know," He said._

"_It's ok, it's just with that…well you know I didn't mean what I said it was stupid and well today has not been a good day. So um do you forgive me?"  
_

"_Yeah," Tim said and looked to him._

"_Thanks mate," His dad said as he hugged him, "So where's mine?" His dad asked as Lisa and Michelle returned.  
_

"_With the straws," Michelle smiled at him._

"_Chelle,"  
_

"_Yes honey," _

"_Never mind," His dad said as he got up and headed to the kitchen. A few moments later there was a knock on the door._

"_That was quick," Lisa said._

"_Yeah well you tend to get good service when you're brother's ex-wife's family own the place. And since they are still working things ou__t or whatever we get priority," Michelle smiled at her as she opened the door and paid the delivery man. They ate pretty quickly and the rest of the night was spent with his dad, Michelle and Lisa getting pretty drunk. He'd tried to get a beer earlier on but apparently they weren't that drunk. Instead he'd done his best to watch the TV which worked pretty well for a couple of hours but by 12:30 it was obvious his dad and Michelle may have drunken quite a bit more then they usually did._

"_Did I tell you how sexy you look today," His dad said obviously trying to whisper but failing miserably. He turned to face them shaking his head in disgust; he shouldn't be made to hear this sort of stuff._

"_About 100 times sweetie," Michelle said as she kissed __his dad which made him turn his attention back to the T.V. _

"_You know I can't stop thinking about how much I want you right here right now," Again something which was probably aimed to be a whisper but failed._

"_Same," She said as she kissed him but this time longer._

"_You shouldn't be able to wear clothes like that it just makes me want you even more…"_

_"Same," She said as she kissed him but this time longer. _

_"You shouldn't be able to wear clothes like that it just makes me want you even more…"_

_"And that's my cue to leave," He said quickly getting up and running to his room. He heard Lisa laughing but there was no way he was looking back in fear of what he might see. Normally they did things like that to wind him up but tonight he was pretty certain that they were deadly serious about what they were saying and so decided to get out while he could. I mean that is never something you want to hear your parents talking about let alone see doing; he was going to be scarred for life._

_

* * *

_

After helping Tim sit up she'd ended up sitting next to him while Tony continued to examine the room. She knew she should help him but he'd been looking for ages and he couldn't find anything so the odds were there was nothing to find. She looked to Tim he had stopped talking, probably lost in thought, not that she blamed him he'd been through more then herself and Tony and he wasn't trained for it. She wished none of this had happened; she just wanted them to all be back home. Already she was thinking about Conner, what would happen if they didn't get out? Who would look after him? What would they tell him? Would he even remember them?

_Once they were back home she carried Conner in and headed straight for the stairs. _

_"I'm gonna get this one to bed," She told them and started climbing up the stairs. As usual Conner protested but eventually gave up as he knew she would win. _

_"Mommy," Conner started again.  
_

_"You are going to bed now," She told him as she carried into his room. Apparently he felt like fighting more tonight._

_"But…"  
_

_"No buts it's late and you need to sleep,"  
_

_"But…" He tried again.  
_

_"Conner Daniel Almeida," With that he put on his sulking face which she was sure Tim had taught him, "Come on," She said as she set him on the bed and pulled out his PJs. _

_"Mommy," He complained again._

_"Honey you are going to bed now end of discussion," She told him as she got him changed and put him in his bed._

_"Story?" He asked as she pulled the duvet over him._

_"Ok," She said, at least he'd probably fall asleep while she read it, "Which one?"  
_

_"Giant, giant,"_

_"Jack and the Beanstalk?" She asked and he nodded furiously until she came back with the book. As always she climbed on the bed and lay down next to him and he came and crawled up next to her so he could see the pictures. After a few minutes he was asleep, she'd only gotten to the part with the magic beans; apparently he was even more tired then usual. Quietly she slipped out of the bed, turned off the lights and headed down stairs._

_"Well that's one down," She said as she walked into the kitchen._

_"He's asleep already?" Tony asked._

_"Yep. You must have really tired him out today," She said to Lisa as she came to a halt by the counter._

_"Think he tired himself out with that football," Lisa said._

_"He didn't break anything did he?" Michelle asked._

_"Nope he doesn't have as strong a kick as my other lovely nephew," Lisa said. She was sure Tim still didn't understand the concept of no balls in the house._

_"Which one? You got five of them," Tony smiled. _

_"Yeah that reminds me when am I going to get a niece? I mean I love my nephews but I think it's time one of you lot had a girl," She said._

_"Well we thought we'd leave that for you," Tony laughed as her face turned pale._

_"Don't start me on kids," Lisa said._

_"What? You do great with Conner and Tim," Michelle said. It was true, Tim and Conner both loved her and she was great at looking after them when she or Tony weren't around even though Tim did claim he was old enough to look after himself._

_"Yeah but well…lets just say it's easier when you can be a cool aunt instead of having to punish them," _

_"Ok I'm just gonna go get out of these clothes," She said and headed off down the hall to their room._

_A few minutes later she heard the door shut and turned round to see Tony. _

_"Hey," She said as she turned round but she didn't smile like she normally did, instead she just went back to looking at her clothes. She really hoped he wasn't here to talk about it._

_"Michelle…"  
_

_"Let's not do this now, not when you're sister's here and not when the kids are around…" She started  
_

_"So what we're not going to talk about it at all," He snapped. He never could let something go and she knew it but it was worth a try, one day he may take the hint._

_"Fine Tony you want to talk about it then lets have some great big argument in front of everyone is that what you want?" She yelled at him. If he was going to be angry at her then she had every right to be angry at him, he just wouldn't listen to her._

_"No,"  
_

_"Well then we won't talk about it," She said as she turned back to the clothes._

_"We can't do it Chelle,"  
_

_"So when I said lets not do this now what did that mean to you?" She asked angrily._

_"Well you say that every time I try to talk to you about it so if you have your way we'll just talk about it when we're there and in my opinion that's a little too late!"_

_"I'm not talking about this now so just…"  
_

_"What shut up keep my opinions to myself?" Why did he always do this when they didn't agree, of course that's not what she meant but did he really think now was the best time to talk about everything.  
_

_"Tony…"  
_

_"What Chelle I thought we could always talk to each other, you know that thing called an honest relationship,"  
_

_"Yeah and what about trust…"  
_

_"Oh so we want to talk about trust, wouldn't have trust have been coming to talk to me before signing on to this mission,"_

_"I said I'd do it, I haven't signed anything yet, so there is still time to back out…"  
_

_"Don't lie to me I saw the piece of paper with yours and Tim's signatures on it…"  
_

_"Tony I never signed anything," God he really did need this holiday, hopefully when they got there he'd stop complaining._

_"Oh," That normally meant he was wrong but he would never admit it.  
_

_"So are we done now,"  
_

_"Only if you promise we will talk about this," He said._

_"Fine," She said as she picked out a pair of jeans and tank top. For a while everything was quite, she'd had enough of trying to make the first move to fix this thing so if he wanted to he could. _

_"I…I'm sorry ok," He said._

_"For what?" She asked. _

_"For acting like a jerk," She just looked at him, "Ok I was wrong to yell at you and Tim, it was the wrong thing to do so I'm sorry for that but I'm not sorry for trying to stop you…"  
_

_"Tony…"  
_

_"Look you don't want to talk about this now, ok fine we'll talk tomorrow but please think about what I've said," _

_"Fine," She said and that was the end of the conversation. He had tried and she didn't shoot him down like he had done earlier with her attempts but there was still more that needed to be said if they were going to get on tonight. Still she didn't feel like being the one to start.  
_

_"Look…if we're not talking about it tonight then can we just act like nothings happened?" He asked as she just stood and looked at him._

_"So we're just going to pretend like nothings happened today?" There was something about him, when he started talking to her like that she just couldn't say no to him and she really wished they could just forget about everything that had happened today.  
_

_"That's the idea," He said softly._

_"You're missing not being able to touch me," She laughed while he just bit his lip to stop the smile on his face, "I'm gonna take that as a yes,"  
_

_"Chelle I hate having fights with you, I hate us being angry at each other and what you said…"_

_"Me too," She smiled as she moved over to him, "But I know you just can't stand not being able to kiss me," She laughed._

_"Guess you know me too well then," He smiled as his lips met hers. After a few moments she pulled back and starting undressing. Suddenly she noticed he was just staring at her as she threw her blouse to the floor._

_"Oi perve," She said and he looked up to meet her eyes._

_"Yes sweetheart," He smiled while she just rolled her eyes._

_"Get changed and stop gawking at me,"  
_

_"Ah but I can't help it when my wife is so beautiful and sexy," He said as he moved over to her, wrapping his arms around her waist and kissing her neck._

_"Tony," _

_"Yeah," He said in between kisses. _

_"You know it makes it awfully hard to get changed when you do that,"  
_

_"So don't get changed,"  
_

_"Believe it or not I'm not going to walk around naked,"  
_

_"Why?"  
_

_"Cause your sister and son are out there,"  
_

_"True so let's just stay here," He said as he spun her around in his arms so they were face to face._

_"Tony…stop,"  
_

_"But…" He started as she pulled out of his arms and pulled her top on._

_"Later," She winked at him and he just smiled, "But for now get changed and let me go and order food cause I'm starving,"_

_"Ok," He said as he went and pulled out a pair of jeans and his sexy black shirt. He started getting dressed as she left the room. _

_"And?" Lisa asked as she walked into the living room._

_"Better," Was all she said, "Now where's my glass?"  
_

_"Here," Lisa said pouring her some wine._

_"So how's life without Jason?" She asked. She knew Lisa was really missing him and Tony and Tim weren't being that helpful about it._

_"Ok I just miss him, I mean he calls me everyday but still two weeks is a long time,"  
_

_"Yeah I know I hate it when Tony or I have to go away," She said._

_"Well at least with Jason I know he'll come back in one piece, I dunno how you guys can cope with what you do…"  
_

_"We just do," She said cutting Lisa off, she'd already had enough serious talk for one day and needed to relax._

_"You just want me to get you a straw, it'll be faster," Tony said as he came to a halt in front of her._

_"Oi cheeky," She said as she hit him lightly. Tim turned round to look at them as Tony helped her up before sitting down and pulling her into his lap._

_"We're pretending nothing has happened for tonight," Tony told Tim._

_"Right so it means I don't get grounded until tomorrow," Tim said as he turned back to the T.V. This would not help things, but like his father Tim didn't know when to let things go._

_"Turn it off a second," Tony said.  
_

_"Why?" Tim asked still obviously sulking._

_"Look we're not talking about it tonight so just act like nothing has happened so we can enjoy it," He said._

_"What's the point I don't listen to anything you say remember,"  
_

_"Tim we don't think that," She said straight away._

_"Dad does," He said but stayed facing the T.V. Straight away both she and Lisa looked at him. If Tim wasn't there right now they would have both had words._

_"Tim I didn't mean it, I was just angry at…"  
_

_"At me so you told me what you really thought," Tim interrupted him. _

_"No mate I was just angry at the situation…"  
_

_"Which I caused," _

_"Tim look remember what we talked about," She said, she didn't want things to get any worse tonight, Tony had stopped sulking and she just wished Tim would as well._

_"Yeah," Tim said after a minute._

_"So just think about it,"_

_"Whatever," He said as he got up causing Jess to jump up as well. Tony grabbed his arm pulling him back as he walked past._

_"I'm sorry ok," He said. For a moment Tim just looked at Tony and then her._

_"Fine," He said rubbing his head before sitting back down while she got up._

_"Where are you going?" Tony asked as he tried to pull her back into his lap._

_"More wine" She said and he just laughed, "What?"  
_

_"Wanna get those straws while you're there," He said which caused Tim to laugh and Lisa to hit him before getting up to go help her. After a few minutes they returned another bottle in hand._

_"So where's mine?" Tony asked.  
_

_"With the straws," She smiled at him._

_"Chelle,"  
_

_"Yes honey," _

_"Never mind," He said as he got up and headed to the kitchen. Suddenly there was a knock at the door._

_"That was quick," Lisa said_

_"Yeah well you tend to get good service when you're brother's ex-wife's family own the place. And since they are still working things out or whatever we get priority," She smiled at her as he opened the door and paid the delivery man. They ate pretty quickly and the rest of the night was spent with Tony, Lisa and herself getting pretty drunk. As it got later it became clear that Tony had drunken more then usual._

_"Did I tell you how sexy you look today," He said obviously trying to whisper but failing miserably. _

_"About 100 times sweetie," She said as she kissed him._

_"You know I can't stop thinking about how much I want you right here right now," _

_"Same," She said as she kissed him but this time longer. Yeah ok so they shouldn't really be saying it here but it was true and the wine made it harder for her to think these things through._

_"You shouldn't be able to wear clothes like that it just makes me want you even more…"  
_

_"And that's my cue to leave," She heard Tim say and then Lisa burst out laughing. After a few more minutes even Lisa became too uncomfortable and left. Eventually at 1:00 am they stumbled into their room and fell on the bed. _

_"Sweetie we can't do this here what about my sister?" He laughed. He was so cute when he was drunk and funny._

_"Ah Tony we're in our room," She giggled as she threw his shirt to the floor._

_"So we are," He said as he looked around, "And we're alone,"  
_

_"Well that does tend to happen since it's our room," She laughed at him._

_"Yeah so you know what that means," He smiled at her seductively._

_"Sweetheart I have been removing your clothes for the last minute I thought you may have caught on by now," She laughed again as he looked down and realised that he was naked.  
_

_"What hey you should be naked too," He slurred slightly while she just laughed, _

_"Well normally you manage to get me naked,"  
_

_"Oh yeah," He smiled as he reached over and tried to take her clothes off. After a few moments he looked up at her._

_"How much did you drink?" She laughed as it was clear he was getting no where._

_"Um I dunno…Chelle why won't your clothes come off?"  
_

_"You want some help?" She asked as she started removing her clothes._

_"See now if you had just stayed naked earlier like I said we wouldn't have this problem would we," He smiled._

_"If you weren't so drunk we wouldn't have this problem,"  
_

_"I'm not," He said pretending to sound hurt._

_"If you lie to me we don't have sex," she said._

_"I'm drunk I'm drunk now…" He didn't finish as her lips met his._


	6. Chapter 6: Home part 3

_Hey thanks for all the reviews, keep them coming :P_

_And i know this one is really long but i just had to finish it so i could move onto the next part._

**Chapter 6 – Home part 3**

He looked around once more before going to sit down next to Michelle and Tim. This couldn't be it, there had to be something he could do, anything. He couldn't just sit here and wait. There had to be a way out, had to be something he could do to get them out. He turned his attention to the poles he'd managed to get out; they could do a lot of damage if they needed them...No he couldn't think like this, there had to be another way out, a way which wasn't so dangerous. Of course this whole situation was dangerous but fighting their way out was almost certainly suicide. If they managed to sneak out it would buy them time, time which they could use to get help or hide…anything but fight when they stood no chance. He buried his head in his hands thinking of what to do.

_Tony stirred slightly and opened his eyes. Quickly he shut them again as they met with the bright beam of light coming from the window. He tried to roll over but something was pinning him down. It was then the flashbacks of last night came, so he knew it would be Michelle. He couldn't be bothered to open his eyes again in fear of the light torturing them so instead moved one of his hands to the body on top of him. He started stroking her hair as he tried to remember everything that had happened last night._

"_Morning sleepy head," He heard Michelle say and he smiled._

"_Morning beautiful," He said and waited for her lips to meet his, "What no kiss?"  
_

"_Well as soon as you've finished with our dog then let me know," She laughed as his eyes opened to see Jess lying on him._

"_What the…Jess," He said as he shot up causing Jess to jump off the bed and run out into the hall. His eyes adjusted in time to see Michelle still laughing at him._

"_That's not funny," He said as he lay back down and closed his eyes._

"_I think it was," She said._

"_No it was very mean," _

"_Aww sweetie what can I do to make it up to you?" She said and he felt her arms wrap around him and the mattress fall lower as her weight was added._

"_Well," He smiled as he turned around to meet her. He watched as she stroked his hair before kissing him lightly on the lips, "I was thinking more along the lines of last night,"  
_

"_Can you even remember last night?" She laughed. Well he remembered some parts just not exactly what they had done when they'd been left alone.  
_

"_Well how about we re-enact it and try and jog my memory," He smiled as he wrapped his arms around her and flipped them over so he was half lying on top of her._

"_I think I can work with that," She said as she kissed him again. They continued making out for a few minutes before they were interrupted. _

"_Mo__mmy, Daddy!" Conner yelled. Immediately they stopped and looked to see Conner standing by the door._

"_Hey sweetie, come on lets go get you dressed," Michelle said as she pushed him off of her and stood up._

"_Oh," He moaned._

"_It was your idea to have kids," She laughed._

"_Yeah and also said we should get a lock on the door," He said as he sat up._

"_Ah well maybe you start work on that then," She smiled at him as she picked Conner up, "Oh I left you a present on the side," She said as she walked out of sight. He looked to the side table to see a glass of water and two aspirin._

"_Too much to drink?" He heard Tim say as he took the pills. He looked round to see him standing in the doorway with a big smile spread across his face.__ Oh God!_

"_Go on then where's my darling sister, so you can all get a laugh outta this," He said._

"_Oh coming," He heard her say and sure enough a few moments later she was there in the doorway with Tim._

"_Ah busy night?" She laughed and he looked down to realised that he was still naked with only the sheet covering him._

"_I don't wanna know," Tim said with a look of disgust on his face._

"_You two got anythin__g else you wanna say?" He asked, wishing they would just leave._

"_Um just that Jess is very scared right now you wouldn't have anything to do with that…"  
_

"_Tim shut up," He said causing both of them to laugh._

"_Oh Tony thought you'd like know that we collected up your beer bottles and the good news is there's enough glass there to repair that window Tim broke,"_

"_What that window was like…well it's huge,"  
_

"_And so is your liver by the looks of things," She smiled at him._

"_I will get you back for this," He said, "Both of you,"  
_

"_You're my dad I think that's enough punishment," Tim said._

"_Hey you didn't have to live with him through his so called rebellion period," Lisa said and Tim laughed. Oh good she was going to start those stories again._

"_So um how did that go again, I haven't heard the stories for oh I don't know a week,"_

"_Well…"  
_

"_Ah that's enough you two leave the poor hung over man alone," Michelle said as she moved past them. _

"_Aww Chelle," Tim said._

"_Well if you'd like to stay we were about to discuss what happened last night,"_

"_Like he can remember," Tim laughed._

"_Maybe not but we were about to do a re-enactment to jog his memory," She said, this made him smile slightly._

"_Uh th__at's gross I'm going," Tim said. Thank God, having your son take the piss out of you when you're hung over is not the greatest experience._

"_Think I'll agree with him on that o__ne," Lisa said and walked off while he looked to Michelle who shut the door._

"_Thanks," He said, he owed her for that._

"_You ok?" She asked as she came and sat on the bed with him._

"_Y__ep," He said as he put his arms around her and pulled her back onto his chest.  
_

"_You sure, you had quite a lot," That was true but it was no big deal was it?  
_

"_Chelle I've had that more then that before,"  
_

"_Yeah but not many times and only at a party never at home,"  
_

"_Look I was drunk no big deal,"  
_

"_And normally I'd agree with you but with everything t__hat happened yesterday with Will…"  
_

"_So we're talking about this now…"  
_

"_I'm here if you want to," She said as she turned around to face him and sat in his lap. It didn't look like he had a choice now._

"_This mean I'm not going anywhere then," He laughed while she smiled._

"_Tony,"  
_

"_Yeah I know," He said as he started playing with he curls nervously._

"_Go on you know you can trust me…"  
_

"_Of course I do…I just can't believe he's really dead, it doesn't seem real yet. To be honest that's about all I feel about it at the moment,"  
_

"_Apart from hating Chappelle,"  
_

"_He's an idiot," He breathed, and that was him being polite._

"_I know so um about the mission…" He knew this was going to come up and had worked out the solution, even though he hated it.  
_

"_We're going, I still don't think we should and I'll try and find a way to prove it since I know you're stubborn…"  
_

"_I'm the stubborn one?" She asked raising her eyebrows._

"_Yep," He nodded._

"_You Tony Almeida invented the word stubborn, which would explain why your son is so stubborn as well…"  
_

"_I wouldn't say Conner was that stubborn,"  
_

"_Oh aren't we the comedian this morning," She smiled._

"_Well you got me drunk so we would talk about the mission when I feel like crap,"  
_

"_Oh no my master plan foiled," She said._

"_Haha very funny," _

"_Look I want you to have a break from work and if I have to I will force you on it because…" She started but stopped as he sighed, "Because I love you," _

_As she finished she pushed her lips to his. Once she pulled back she just looked at him for a few moments. She may have been doing it for the right reasons but he still didn't think it was a good idea._

"_Ok how about a compromise," She said as she pulled back just slightly, "We go on it but if you find any evidence or anything suggesting that there is more to it then Chappelle let on then we'll stop it," Tony just sighed he knew he had to agree to it and to be honest Michelle was being very lenient considering to her he was just paranoid about nothing._

"_Ok," He muttered in defeat._

"_Did I happen to mention that I had brought you a present that you can have when we get there," This caught his interest.  
_

"_The kind of present which involves chucking Tim out of the house so he can't hear all the noise you make,"  
_

"_Noise you make sweetie," She smiled as she kissed him lightly._

"_Whatever…"  
_

"_Well yes it is that kind of present but you won't see it till we get there and only if you're a good boy,"  
_

"_I'm always good," He said as he kissed her again._

"_Liar,"  
_

"_What you gonna do about it," He smiled as his lips met hers again. Eventually they both emerged from the bedroom, after showering and getting dressed. They walked out to see Tim and Conner playing football in the living room._

"_Timothy Joseph Almeida!"__ Michelle said straight away causing Tim to look round._

"_Hey what's with the full name?" Tim said pretending to be shocked._

"_What have I told you about balls in the house?" _

"_Um can't remember," _

"_I swear if you've broken anything…" She started but he thought he should intervene; it wasn't the end of the world.  
_

"_Honey," He whispered in her ear._

"_Give it here," She said as she moved over to them. Reluctantly Tim handed it over._

"_Mo__mmy," Conner tried to protest, grabbing at the ball._

"_Not a chance, this is going away unless you're outside,"  
_

"_Daddy," Conner tried._

"_Oh no your big brother has been teaching you bad habits," She said as she glared at Tim._

"_Hey I…"  
_

"_Tim shut up, you're excuses suck," He said as he moved into the kitchen pouring himself some cereal._

"_No they don't,"  
_

"_Well they could use some work," He said as Tim came to join him leaving Michelle to deal with Conner. After a few moments Tim spoke._

"_So um are we talking about the mission yet?" Tim asked nervously making sure not to make eye contact._

"_We're doing it," He sighed._

"_Really cool," Tim said but then stopped, "It's safe dad honest,"  
_

"_Yeah," He muttered not convinced at all, "Hey where's Lisa?"  
_

"_She went home something about…well I wasn't really listening," _

"_Very helpful," He said as he started eating._

"_You know they call that a breakfast cereal…"  
_

"_Yeah," He interrupted.  
_

_"Well they kinda call it that cause you're supposed to eat it in the morning and you know since it's…" Tim started and looked at his watch while Tony just sat waiting for the sarcastic comment, "Hmm bout half twelve…"  
_

"_Shut up," He said while Tim just laughed. A moment later Michelle came into his sight carrying Conner._

"_Ah Tim…"  
_

"_Uh oh," Tim said while Michelle just rolled her eyes._

"_Since you seem to have so much energy this morning…" He could see Tim was about to correct her and so kicked his leg._

"_Ow," Tim called out as he faced him._

"_As I was saying as you have so much energy you can go take Jess for a walk…"  
_

"_But I never…" Tim tied to protest before he interrupted._

"_Do as she says,"  
_

"_Fine whatever,"  
_

"_Oh I'm so glad we have a teenager," He said._

"_You can't blame this on me he's all yours," Michelle said as she stuck her tongue out at Tim._

"_Ooo can really feel the love round here this morning,"  
_

"_Afternoon," He quickly corrected._

"_Shut up," Tim said causing both he and Michelle laugh, "Fine I'll take Conner while I'm at it,"  
_

"_Ok," He said. They had no problem trusting Tim to look after Conner. They knew he'd do anything to make sure Conner was safe._

"_Hey Conner wanna got to the park?" Tim asked to which Conner nodded. He just watched as Michelle set Conner on the floor who ran off to gets his shoes._

"_We'll catch you up in a bit, make sure you got your phone with you," Michelle told Tim._

"_As always," Tim said before he headed to the door, "Jess," Then came the constant barking until all three of them were out the door, leaving Michelle and him alone._

"_Hungry?" He inquired as he went for his second bowl._

"_Na I ate earlier," She said as he wrapped an arm around her and pulled her onto his lap._

"_Where's your sister?" She asked as he continued eating._

"_Went home,"  
_

"_Why?"  
_

"_Dunno Tim told me," He said._

"_Ah ok. Well I better give her a call," She said as she got off him._

"_Why?"  
_

"_So I can ask her if she can look after Conner while we're away,"  
_

"_Oh yeah," He said as he went back to his food. An hour later Michelle had finally finished talking to his sister. He'd given up trying to get her off the phone and had ended up in front of the T.V._

"_Finally," He said as she sat down next to him.  
_

"_Hey we owe her big time for this," She said as she cuddled up to him._

"_I think this balances out all of those parties I bailed her out off which Mum and Dad would kill her for going to," He said as he kissed her head._

"_Haven't heard these before,"  
_

"_I'm sworn to secrecy," He smiled._

"_We're married we should have no secrets," She said._

"_Another time. We better go find Tim and Conner," He said as they got up and headed to the car. After the 10 minute drive __and a few minutes of looking around the park they spotted Conner sliding down one of the slides._

"_Hey when did he start going using the slides?" He asked, he was sure Conner had never wanted to go on them before._

"_Ever since Tim showed it to him,"  
_

"_God he'd do anything Tim told him,"  
_

"_Yep," Michelle agreed._

"_Scary ain't it," He said causing Michelle to laugh._

"_I think it's kinda cute," She smiled as he wrapped an arm around her._

"_You do until Tim teaches him all his bad habits like kicking the ball inside," He laughed._

"_Just be grateful that's all it is," She said._

"_Hey you know since Conner will be three quite soon, you think we should start work on another baby?" He smiled at her as his hand slid across her stomach._

"_You want another baby?" She questioned as she opened the gate to the play area, of course he did, he loved having Tim and Conner and couldn't wait to have another child._

"_Honey you know I want a big family,"  
_

"_Yeah but with CTU…"  
_

"_It's working ok with Conner isn't it and Tim's turned out pretty well…"  
_

"_Not what you were saying the other day," He hadn't meant that and she knew it.  
_

"_You know why that was,"  
_

"_Yep. Why don't we talk about this another time,"  
_

"_Ok but…"  
_

"_You know you can never let anything go," She laughed. She was kinda right but he couldn't help it._

"_Sorry," He said bowing his head._

"_It's fine and you know I want more kids as well but I just don't know if now is the right time,"_

"_Ok," He said as he kissed the top of her head._

"_But we can still continuing practising," She smiled at him._

"_Sweetheart we'll never stop practising cause you're just too good looking for me not to take advantage of you," He smiled causing her to laugh._

"_Mo__mmy daddy," Conner called out as he jumped off the slide and ran towards them. As soon as he was close enough he picked Conner up spinning him around._

"_Did you see me?" Conner asked as he was placed on the floor, "Did you see me?"  
_

"_Yes sweetie," Michelle said as she kissed him, "You wanna show us again?"  
_

"_Yeah," Conner said running off and climbing back up the ladder. He looked over to see Tim heading towards them, Jess following._

"_Hey mate," He said as Tim came to a halt in front of them._

"_Hey,"  
_

"_So how's he been?" Michelle asked as they all watched Conner fly down the slide._

"_I swear that kid's got more energy then anyone,"  
_

"_Well if anyone can keep up with him it's you," He smiled at his son._

"_Gee thanks dad,"  
_

"_Don't deny it__ anyway we know you love having a younger brother," Michelle said._

"_Yeah whatever,"_

"_Aww teenager speak for I love it,"  
_

"_Dad," Tim protested while he and Michelle just smiled. Just then Conner came flying off the slide hitting the floor. Michelle rushed over straight away as they heard the cries from Conner. She returned a few moments Conner in her arms still sobbing into her shoulder._

"_Hey buddy," He said as Michelle handed Conner to him. They checked him over just to find a few grazes._

"_Think we got some plasters in the car," Michelle said._

"_Ok," He said as they headed back to the car park. On the way Tim tried funny faces and jokes to get Conner to stop crying which worked pretty well as by the time they reached the car Conner was laughing. As soon as the door was open Jess jumped in pulling the lead from Michelle's hand while he set Conner down in the front seat as he grabbed a few plasters from the glove compartment. He put one on Conner's hand and the other on his knee._

"_There you go all better," He__ said as he wiped Conner's face._

"_Think we should go back home then," Michelle said._

"_No," Conner said immediately._

"_No?" She questioned._

"_Swings," Conner said smiling._

"_Oh yeah kinda promised we go on the swings since we had to walk Jess first. And when I say walk I mean I carried Conner most of the way while chucking the ball for Jess. So you know I'm __actually fine to go home now," Tim yawned._

"_No swings," Came Conner's voice again._

"_Ok sweetie," Michelle said. For the next hour Michelle just watched Tim and Conner playing, while helping to push Conner on the swing. He on the other hand took Jess for a run so they wouldn't have to take her out again until tomorrow. He went back to join the others collapsing on the bench overlooking the swings as Jess collapsed on the floor beside him._

"_Good run?" Michelle asked as she came and sat next to him._

"_Yep," He said as he wiped his forehead and then wiped his hand on her arm, "Nice and sweaty,"  
_

"_Eww Tony," She squealed as she shot up._

"_Yes honey,"  
_

"_That's disgusting,"_

"_What you like it when we're making love,"  
_

"_That's different and anyway you can't say that sort of stuff here there's kids,"  
_

"_Oh yeah don't think they heard," He laughed. After another half an hour Conner had finally tired himself out and they all agreed to head home. It wasn't until half four they all got in. It gave Tony time for a quick shower before they had to leave for the briefing._

* * *

Tim just stayed sitting as his dad sat down next to him, putting his hands in his head. He was pretty sure that wasn't a good sign. 

"You ok dad?" With that he looked up at him.

"Yeah, yeah I'm fine. What about you?"

"Ok I guess,"

"If you need anything you just say yeah,"

"Well a cheeseburger wouldn't go a miss right now," He smiled. He knew he should be terrified right now, not joking, and he was but if he just sat there thinking about what could happen to him then...well it just wouldn't be worth thinking about.

_Slowly Tim looked round to his clock, 10:30 that wasn't bad for him. After a few more moments of lying in bed he finally got up and walked out into the hall. He carried on down to the kitchen to see Conner running around with a toy plane making aeroplane noises._

"_Hey dude," He said as Conner almost ran into him._

"_Tim," Conner screamed as he jumped onto him. Tim just put him under one of his arms tickling him while Conner screamed.  
_

"_Oi keep it down you two," Michelle said as she came down the stairs with Lisa. _

"_Fine," He said as he dropped Conner onto the sofa again making Conner scream.  
_

"_Tim," Michelle warned._

"_What I never did nothing," He smiled as Conner jumped up. _

"_You never do," She said as she headed to the kitchen. He turned to follow when he felt something land on his back. He turned to see Conner latching onto him._

"_You want me to carry you?" He asked while Conner just smiled._

"_Hmm now who does that remind me of?" Lisa said as she walked with them to the kitchen._

"_What?" He said innocently._

"_I seem to remember one Christmas when you wouldn't let your dad sit down for more then five minutes without jumping on his back yelling horsey, horsey," She laughed as she sat down._

"_I don't remember that,"  
_

"_Course you don't," She smiled as he put Conner in his chair._

"_So where's dad?" He asked._

"_Sleeping," Michelle said as she placed the cereal out in front of them._

"_God he's more lazy then I am,"  
_

"_Trust me there is no one more lazy then you are" She smiled at him. They ate breakfast quickly while Michelle went off to see if his dad was up yet. After he was done he quickly went to get dressed and have a shower while Lisa played with Conner. After he was done he saw Michelle standing in the doorway of her room holding Conner. Since that meant his dad was probably up he went to see the damage done to him._

"_Oh I left you a present on the side,"__ Heard Michelle say, "Be nice," She told him as she walked past._

"_I will," He smiled, this was just a too good of an opportunity to pass up. _

"_Too much to drink?" He asked as he stood in the doorway with a big smile spread across his face._

"_Go on then where's my darling sister, so you can all get a laugh outta this," His dad said._

"_Oh coming," She called and sure enough a few moments later she was there in the doorway with him._

"_Ah busy night?" She laughed._

"_I don't wanna know," He said with a look of disgust on his face, he really, really didn't want to know._

"_You two got anything else you wanna say?" He asked._

"_Um just that Jess is very scared right now you wouldn't have anything to do with that…"  
_

"_Tim shut up," His dad said causing both of them to laugh._

"_Oh Tony thought you'd like know that we collected up your beer bottles and the good news is there's enough glass there to repair that window Tim broke,"_

"_What that window was like…well it's huge,"  
_

"_And so is your liver by the looks of things," She smiled at him._

"_I will get you back for this," He said, "Both of you,"  
_

"_You're my dad I think that's enough puni__shment," He said._

"_Hey you didn't have to live with him through his so called rebellion peri__od," Lisa said while he laughed, there was nothing more fun then starting Saturday by taking the piss out of your hung over father._

"_So um how did that go again, I haven't heard the stories for oh I don't know a week," He said._

"_Well…"  
_

"_Ah that's enough you two leave the poor hung over man alone," Michelle said as she moved past them._

"_Aww Chelle," He said._

"_Well if you'd like to stay we were about to discuss what happened last night,"_

"_Like he can remember," He laughed. It was true; he would be amazed if he could remember past eating dinner._

"_Maybe not but we were about to do a re-enactment to jog his memory," She said._

"_Uh that's gross I'm going," He said. He never ever in his life wanted to think about that or hear them talk about it but they seemed to find it funny to gross him out with it._

_For the next half hour or so he just played with Conner._

"_Ok guys I'm going, and I aint going to interrupt whatever is going on in there," Lisa said indicating to his dad and Michelle's room._

"_Ok," He said not really listening._

"_Tim,"  
_

"_Yeah,"_

"_Tell them that I've gone home to sort out some things for work,"  
_

"_Sure," He said as he searched the living room for the football._

"_And since you're not listening to word I'm saying tell them I'm going to be abducted by aliens but I'll be home in time to look after Conner tonight,"  
_

"_Will do," Ah there it was. He picked up the ball and turned round to see Lisa hugging Conner._

"_Bye,"  
_

"_Bye__," And with that she left. With Lisa gone he started on seeing how many kick ups he could do. After 10 minutes Conner had got bored of watching and so he had started kicking the ball to him, it was never to early for him to start learning to become a world class football player even if Michelle said it was._

"_Timothy Joseph Almeida!"__ He heard Michelle yell and turned round. This wasn't good._

"_Hey what's with the full name?" He said pretending to be shocked. Maybe she'd be in a good mood._

"_What have I told you about balls in the house?" Maybe not._

"_Um can't remember," _

"_I swear if you've broken anything…" She started but his dad whispered something in her ear._

"_Give it here," She said as she moved over to them. Reluctantly he handed it over._

"_Mo__mmy," Conner tried to protest, grabbing at the ball._

"_Not a chance, this is going away unless you're __outside,"  
_

"_Daddy," Conner tried, you're only supposed to do that when she's not around. He was sure he told Conner that bit._

"_Oh no your big brother has been teaching you bad habits," She said as she glared at him._

"_Hey I…"  
_

"_Tim shut up, you're excuses suck," His dad said as he moved into the kitchen pouring himself some cereal._

"_No they don't,"  
_

"_Well they could use some work," His dad said as he came to join him leaving Michelle to deal with Conner. He took a deep breath before he started, he just had to ask._

"_So um are we talking about the mission yet?" He asked nervously making sure not to make eye contact._

"_We're doing it," His dad sighed._

"_Really cool," He said but then stopped, "It's safe dad honest,"  
_

"_Yeah," His dad muttered, "Hey where's Lisa?"  
_

"_She went home something about…well I wasn't really listening," _

"_Very helpful," Yeah he should have listened but he was doing something very important at the time._

"_You know they call that a breakfast cereal…" He started  
_

"_Yeah,"  
_

"_Well they kinda call it that cause you're supposed to eat it in the morning and you know since it's…" He started and looked at his watch while, "Hmm bout half twelve…"  
_

"_Shut up," His dad said while he just laughed. _

"_Ah Tim…" Michelle said as she came over to them carrying Conner.  
_

"_Uh oh," He said, this meant she was going to make him do something._

"_Since you seem to have so much energy this morning…" He was about to correct her when someone kicked him._

"_Ow," He called out as he faced his dad knowing it was him._

"_As I was saying as you have so much energy you can go take Jess for a walk…"  
_

"_But I never…" He tried to protest._

"_Do as she says,"  
_

"_Fine whatever,"  
_

"_Oh I'm so glad we have a teenager," His dad said._

"_You can't blame this on me he's all yours," Michelle said as she stuck her tongue out at him._

"_Ooo can really feel the love round here this morning," He said, he knew they were only messing with him and he couldn't really object after he'd got his laugh out of his dad this morning.  
_

"_Afternoon," His dad quickly corrected._

"_Shut up," He said causing both of them he to laugh, "Fine I'll take Conner while I'm at it,"  
_

"_Ok," His dad said._

"_Hey Conner wanna got to the park?" He asked to which Conner nodded. _

"_We'll catch you up in a bit, make sure you got your phone with you," Michelle told him._

"_As always," He said before he headed to the door, "Jess," Then came the constant barking until all three of them were out the door. It took them quite a while to get the park which made Conner start complaining. So while they walked Jess he had to carry Conner. He knew as soon as they got to the play area he'd suddenly be full of energy but Jess needed to be walked and Conner seemed to find it boring since he couldn't throw the ball far enough for her. _

"_Slide," Conner said for the fifth time as he chucked the ball again causing Jess to run off._

"_Not yet,"  
_

"_Slide," _

"_Conner,"_

"_Slide," _

"_Conner we need to walk Jess first then we can go to the slide ok," He said but Conner didn't answer, "Ok?"  
_

"_I throw ball," Conner said as Jess came back._

"_Ok," He said, hopefully he'd stop complaining for a while. He put Conner on the floor and took the ball from Jess handing it to him, "Go on," He encouraged as Conner chucked the ball a few feet in front of them. Jess was there and back in seconds. After a few more goes Conner got bored and they headed to the play area. He chucked the ball back along the way hopefully that would be enough to tire Jess out. Once they were there he stood holding Jess' lead while Conner went on the slides._

"_Mo__mmy daddy," He heard Conner call out and turned to see them walking through the gate. Slowly he made his way over to them._

"_Hey mate," His dad said as he came to a halt in front of them, dragging Jess with him as she had spotted some of the other children playing with another ball._

"_Hey,"  
_

"_So how's he been?" Michelle asked as they all watched Conner fly down the slide._

"_I swear that kid's got more energy then anyone," He said.  
_

"_Well if anyone can keep up with him it's you," His dad smiled at him._

"_Gee thanks dad,"  
_

"_Don't deny it__ anyway we know you love having a younger brother," Michelle said. Yeah he did, but he wasn't going to admit it god knows how many more kids they'd have._

"_Yeah whatever,"_

"_Aww teenager speak for I love it,"  
_

"_Dad," He protested. Just then Conner came flying off the slide hitting the floor. Michelle rushed over straight away as they heard the cries from Conner. She returned a few moments Conner in her arms still sobbing into her shoulder._

"_Hey buddy," His dad said as Michelle handed Conner to him. _

"_Think we got some plasters in the car," Michelle said._

"_Ok," His dad said as they headed back to the car park. On the way he tried funny faces and jokes to get Conner to stop crying which worked pretty well as by the time they reached the car Conner was laughing. As soon as the door was open Jess jumped in pulling the lead from Michelle's hand. His dad put Conner down in the front seat while he and Michelle waited outside. _

"_There you go all better," His dad said as he wiped Conner's face._

"_Think we should go back home then," Michelle said._

"_No," Conner said immediately._

"_No?" She questioned._

"_Swings," Conner said smiling._

"_Oh yeah kinda promised we go on the swings since we had to walk Jess first. And when I say walk I mean I carried Conner most of the way while chucking the ball for Jess. So you know I'm actually fine to go home now," He yawned._

"_No swings," Came Conner's voice again._

"_Ok sweetie," Michelle said. For the next hour Michelle just watched as he and Conner played, while helping to push Conner on the swing. His dad on the other hand took Jess for a run so they wouldn't have to take her out again until tomorrow. After another hour or so Conner had finally tired himself out and so they all decided to go home before having to go out for the briefing._

* * *

Michelle turned to look at Tim and Tony who were now sitting side by side, briefly talking. She didn't listen; she was too lost in her own thoughts. If the guards came back it would be for one of two things and she really didn't like either of them. Either they wouldn't need them anymore and would be here to kill them or they'd come back to interrogate them and their way of interrogation was torture. Torture which would easily make those with no training spill everything they knew, which was why she was so scared right now…Tim would break easy, she knew that, Tony knew it, everyone did, even Tim probably had an idea. They needed to find a way to stop that happening. 

_Michelle could feel something wet on her face as she started to come around from her sleep. Her head was pounding but at least she could remember what had happened last night, unlike a certain someone who was passed out next to her. Suddenly she felt the wetness on her face again and turned just in time to see Jess' tongue lick her face._

"… _Jess…" She sighed quickly turning over to face Tony, which was when she noticed the clock on the side, "Oh God," 9…and Tony wasn't up, Tim would definitely not be up and Lisa sure wouldn't be after last night, which meant that Conner if going by his usual routine had been up for the last 2 hours by himself. _

_Quickly she got out of bed causing Jess to move and run out the room, no doubt heading to her bowl waiting for her food. Just as she was about to reach the door she realised she wasn't exactly wearing anything and grabbed her robe from the door, wrapping it around herself before heading out into the house to look for what damage could have been caused. As she walked down the hall there was no sign of anything out of place luckily, but then she turned the corner and saw the remains of last night. There were bottles all over the place and scraps of pizza boxes which Jess had obviously decided to demolish._

"_Conner," She called out but no reply. She didn't know if it was a good sign or not. But she didn't have time to think about it when she heard Conner's voice, but he wasn't talking to her, he was making sounds but for what she didn't know. Quickly she ran up the stairs and to his room to find him sitting in the middle of what could only be considered a massacre of his army toys._

"_Morning Sweetie," She said as she scanned his body making sure he hadn't injured himself in any way._

"_Mommy," He called out as he chucked the monster truck down on top of the little plastic men and then place__d his arms in the air, indicating he wanted to be picked up.  
_

"_How long have you been up by yourself then?" She asked as she lifted him up but he just shook his head. "Someone else is awake?" To which he nodded. Well it definitely wasn't Tony and the day that Tim got up before the rest of them would be day she expected the apocalypse, so it must have been Lisa. With that thought she walked out of Conner's room and towards the guest room, Conner still in her arms. _

"_You be really quiet ok," She told Conner who nodded. Slowly she knocked on the door praying Lisa was up, she didn't want to wake her after a night of drinking if she was anything like her brother._

"_Yeah," Came Lisa's voice although very faintly. Michelle took that as enough to enter and so turned the door handle and walked in. As she came to a halt just inside the door she saw Lisa curled up under the duvet._

"_You awake?" Michelle asked._

"_Nope," Lisa said as she looked to her._

"_You get this one up?" She asked._

"_Yeah, he isn't exactly quiet when he wants something," Lisa told her while she looked to Conner who just smiled._

"_Sorry, I…"  
_

"_Passed out with my drunk brother," Lisa finished for her.  
_

"_You could have come and gotten me…"  
_

"_And walk into that room, when you could have both been passed out across the floor after doing you know. I was not taking that chance," Lisa told her while she laughed._

"_Sorry you had to get up so early," _

"_It's ok, I just got him out of bed and gave him his toys, he can keep himself amused with that," Lisa explained._

"_Yeah, he was busy killing an army when I found him…"  
_

"_Wonder where he got that idea," Lisa said while the name Tim sprang to mind._

"_Well I'll leave you alone to get some sleep, want a coffee?"_

"_You know coffee and sleep don't exactly go together," Lisa told her._

"_Yeah sorry. Still waking…"_

"_Mommy," Conner interrupted, he was obviously bored by now._

"_One second," She told him_

"_It's ok go sort him out and I'll have that coffee when you're ready seen as I'm already up," _

"_Thanks," She said and headed for the door, "Aspirins in the cupboard by the way,"_

_With that she carried Conner downstairs and set him in front of the T.V. She picked up the remote and flicked it on to one of the hundreds of kid's channels. _

"_Watch this while I get ready ok honey," Conner just nodded already engrossed in the show. She grabbed her head in pain; apparently Lisa and Tony were not the only ones who were hung over. Quickly she went back into their room and to the bathroom looking for the aspirin. After a few seconds she found the packet and grabbed it heading to the kitchen to get some water to wash it down. She hadn't had that much to drink in a while and although it was not the worse hangover she had ever had it was definitely the worse since Conner had been born. After she'd taken the tablets she looked down to see Jess looking up at her, her puppy dog eyes sparkling in the light._

"_Food right," She said to herself and grabbed the dog food placing it in Jess' bowl, who immediately went to work at evaporating it. Now all she needed to do was get dressed, have breakfast, feed Conner, make Lisa a coffee and check to make sure Tony was alright. If she wasn't a mother she would have gone back to bed long ago but now even if she felt ill or tired Conner was her main priority. Of course Tim was as well but Tim never needed anything until after 12. Rubbing her head as the aspirin hopefully took affect she walked back to her room seen as Conner was still fascinated by whatever kids show was on. Quickly she grabbed some clothes from the closet, a navy tank top and three-quarter length combats. From the sun shining through the windows she knew it was going to be a hot day already. Once she was dressed she headed back into the living area and sat down next to Conner. As soon as she'd gotten comfortable he jumped onto her lap and snuggled into her. _

"_So what's this?" She asked as the show came back on and she wrapped her arms around him._

"_Barney!" Conner yelled out and she looked to see the big purple dinosaur jumping up and down with the kids on screen. She didn't know why but for reason since Conner got interested in the T.V. and the kid's shows that were on she could actually stand to watch them. She remembered buying videos for her nieces and nephew when they were younger and not understanding how Danny could actually put himself through a whole viewing of one. But now with Conner she finally figured out why he did it, even though he had slept with Carrie and he'd left them for her, he still loved his kids and he'd do anything for them, anything to make them happy…even watching a silly show. _

"_I'm not," She heard Conner say and looked to see him talking to Barney at whatever he's just said._

"_You're not what?" She asked as she ran her fingers through his hair, trying to get it to lie flat. _

"_Tickly," He said._

"_Ticklish?" She asked and he nodded, "I'm sure you are,"  
_

"_Am not," He said proudly._

"_Well if you're not…" She started as she tickled his side which made him burst into laughter and squirm in her arms._

"_I thought you weren't ticklish," She said as she stopped for a moment._

"_I'm not," He said with a giant grin on his face. She looked down at him and just smiled, he was now half lying across her__, his feet on the sofa while most of his body was across her lap and her head rested against her arm on the side of the sofa._

"_You still sure you're not ticklish?" She asked and he nodded so she tickled him again which made him laugh and wriggle about._

"_How about now?" But he just shook his head so she did it again._

"_Mommy," He called out as he continued to squirm._

"_Now?" She asked and he nodded._

"_Come on lets get you some breakfast," She said as she picked him up and took him to the kitchen. She placed him in his seat and got his food. Once he started eating she quickly went and cleaned up the empty bottles and chewed up pieces of pizza box. When she came back Conner was still eating and so she had her breakfast while making the coffee for Lisa._

"_Done," Conner announced and she looked round to see milk all around his mouth, she just laughed as she grabbed a cloth and wiped his face clean. _

"_You can go play with your toys now," She told him as she lifted him out of the chair and set him on the floor. Immediately he ran off to the living area to find something to play with. After five minutes or so she was heading to Lisa's room the coffee in her hand._

"_Hey you decent?" She called out._

"_Yeah come in," Lisa called back, with that she opened the door to find Lisa fully dressed and brushing her hair in front of the mirror._

"_Wow you look…"  
_

"_Make up can hide anything," Lisa smiled while she just laughed and put the coffee on the side table, "But until I've had 10 cups of coffee I will still feel dead inside,"_

"_Well number ones over there," _

"_Thanks," Lisa said as she threw the brush down and grabbed the mug, "So how's the little one then,"  
_

"_Finding more toys to play with," She told her._

"_That one has more energy then any of the others," Lisa told her sitting on the bed drinking her coffee._

"_Even Tim?" She asked, in the mornings he…well he definitely wasn't a morning person but when he was up he had an amazing amount of energy, especially when it came to playing sports. She'd watched him play basketball and soccer games and at the end, even when he was dripping with sweat and covered in mud he looked like he was ready for more compared to nearly everyone else who looked like they'd drop down at that instance._

"_Yep, he was lively but he did in bursts whereas Conner seems to go for a whole day and then collapse. And Kyle was easy to be honest, he was quite a quiet kid until he became a teenager and then Matt and Simon were, well if you were the only one watching them it was hard seen as they were twins but by themselves they would have been pretty easy too but not like they were ever gonna be split up,"_

"_See such an expert, you know more then me and you don't even have kids..."  
_

"_Don't start I've only been going out with Jason for months, I am not scaring him off with talks about having kids,"_

"_Yeah wait till he proposes,"  
_

"_Like that's ever going to happen," Lisa laughed._

"_Don't you want it?" _

"_Of course I do but don't tell Tony, you know he'll go give Jason a talk and then bye, bye chance of a life with him,"_

"_Lisa Tony loves you and he already has an idea that Jason might be the one for you,"_

"_He say that?" Lisa asked._

"_Nope he doesn't have to, we all just have to look at you two and we can see how much you care about each other,"  
_

"_Oh God you're going all mushy on me," Lisa said which made her laugh._

"_You want something to eat then? I better go check on Tony,"_

"_Sure," With that they both got up and headed downstairs. Halfway down and she heard Conner screaming. She looked over to see Tim holding Conner under one of his arms and tickling him.  
_

"_Oi keep it down you two," She said._

"_Fine," Tim said as he dropped Conner onto the sofa again making Conner scream.  
_

"_Tim," She warned as she knew that would happen and so did he._

"_What I never did nothing," Tim smiled as Conner jumped up. _

"_You never do," She said as she headed to the kitchen. _

"_You want me to carry you?" She heard Tim asked but didn't hear the rest as she starting clearing away her and Conner's breakfast stuff._

"_So where's dad?" Tim asked as she turned round to see Tim, Lisa and Conner sitting down._

"_Sleeping," She said as she placed the cereal out in front of them._

"_God he's more lazy then I am,"  
_

"_Trust me there is no one more lazy then you are" She smiled at him as she picked up the glass of water and aspirin and went to check on Tony. Once she reached the room she smiled as she stood in the doorway, looking at the bed. Tony was lying on his back with Jess resting on him. She saw his hand stroking Jess and so knew he was awake._

"_Morning sleepy head," She said which made him smile._

"_Morning beautiful," He said and waited a moment, "What no kiss?"  
_

"_Well as soon as you've finished with our dog then let me know," She laughed as his eyes opened to see Jess lying on him._

"_What the…Jess," He said as he shot up causing Jess to jump off the bed and run out into the hall while she continued to laugh at him._

"_That's not funny," He said as he turned over and closed his eyes._

"_I think it was," She said as she walked over to the bed and placed the glass of water and aspirin on the side._

"_No it was very mean," _

"_Aww sweetie what can I do to make it up to you?" She said as she sat on the bed before wrapping her arms around him._

"_Well," He smiled as he turned around to meet her while she stroked his hair before kissing him lightly on the lips, "I was thinking more along the lines of last night,"  
_

"_Can you even remember last night?" She laughed.  
_

"_Well how about we re-enact it and try and jog my memory," Tony smiled as he wrapped his arms around her and flipped them over so he was half lying on top of her._

"_I think I can work with that," She said as she kissed him again. They continued making out for a few minutes before they were interrupted. _

"_Mommy, Daddy!" Conner yelled. Immediately they stopped and looked to see Conner standing by the door._

"_Hey sweetie, come on lets go get you dressed," She said as she pushed Tony away, knowing he was dying for more._

"_Oh," He moaned._

"_It was your idea to have kids," She laughed._

"_Yeah and I also said we should get a lock on the door," He said as he sat up._

"_Ah well maybe you start work on that then," She smiled at him as she picked Conner up, "Oh I left you a present on the side," She said as she walked out of sight. Halfway down the corridor she saw Tim, "Be nice," _

"_I will," He said but she knew he wouldn't. She decided she'd allow it until she got Conner dressed then she'd come back and rescue Tony. Within 10 minutes she was carrying Conner back down the stairs. She dressed him in black shorts and cubs T-shirt, which Tony had brought for him, saying by the time he was old enough to appreciate the sport they might have actually won something._

"_Right you go play while I go rescue daddy," She told him as she kissed him and put him on the floor. As she walked down the hall she could hear Tim and Lisa, probably taking great pleasure from Tony's state.  
_

"_Ah that's enough you two leave the poor hung over man alone," She said as she moved past them._

"_Aww Chelle," Tim started._

"_Well if you'd like to stay we were about to discuss what happened last night,"_

"_Like he can remember," Tim laughed._

"_Maybe not but we were about to do a re-enactment to jog his memory," She said._

"_Uh that's gross I'm going," Tim said._

"_Think I'll agree with him on that one," Lisa said and walked off allowing her to shut the door behind them._

"_Thanks," He said._

"_You ok?" She asked as she came and sat on the bed with him._

"_Yep," He said as he put his arms around her and pulled her back onto his chest.  
_

"_You sure, you had quite a lot," And so did she and Lisa but they weren't under as much stress as Tony was. She was worried about him, it wasn't like she didn't trust him but she didn't want him to turn to drink when he was stressed and it wasn't like he was. She was just jumping to conclusions that were stupid.  
_

"_Chelle I've had that more then that before,"  
_

"_Yeah but not many times and only at a party never at home,"  
_

"_Look I was drunk no big deal,"  
_

"_And normally I'd agree with you but with everything that happened yesterday with Will…"  
_

"_So we're talking about this now…" Well if she didn't bring it up now there wasn't really any other time.  
_

"_I'm here if you want to," She said as she turned around to face him and sat in his lap._

"_This mean I'm not going anywhere then," He laughed while she smiled._

"_Tony,"  
_

"_Yeah I know," He said as he started playing with her curls nervously. Now he needed to talk, just like he had yesterday. She was his wife and she knew the signs._

"_Go on you know you can trust me…"  
_

"_Of course I do…I just can't believe he's really dead, it doesn't seem real yet. To be honest that's about all I feel about it at the moment,"  
_

"_Apart from hating Chappelle,"  
_

"_He's an idiot," He breathed, Maybe she shouldn't have mentioned it._

"_I know so um about the mission…"  
_

"_We're going, I still don't think we should and I'll try and find a way to prove it since I know you're stubborn…"  
_

"_I'm the stubborn one?" She asked raising her eyebrows. _

"_Yep," He nodded._

"_You Tony Almeida invented the word stubborn, which would explain why your son is so stubborn as well…"  
_

"_I wouldn't say Conner was that stubborn,"  
_

"_Oh aren't we the comedian this morning," She smiled, he seemed ok to her._

"_Well you got me drunk so we would talk about the mission when I feel like crap,"  
_

"_Oh no my master plan foiled," She said._

"_Haha very funny," _

"_Look I want you to have a break from work and if I have to I will force you on it because…" She started but stopped as he sighed, "Because I love you," _

_As she finished she pushed her lips to his, that always got his attention. Once she pulled back she just looked at him for a few moments. She knew if he had doubts there would be a reason but with everything at worked lately she thought that his judgement could have been compromised ever so slightly. Whatever was going on she knew he needed a holiday but she didn't want him to hate her for it, she just wanted him to be happy._

"_Ok how about a compromise," She said as she pulled back just slightly, "We go on it but if you find any evidence or anything suggesting that there is more to it then Chappelle let on then we'll stop it," Tony just sighed, she knew this was the best solution to the problem and it made the most sense, even Tony couldn't argue with that._

"_Ok," He muttered in defeat but she knew a way to make him feel a bit better about it._

"_Did I happen to mention that I had brought you a present that you can have when we get there,"  
_

"_The kind of present which involves chucking Tim out of the house so he can't hear all the noise you make,"  
_

"_Noise you make sweetie," She smiled as she kissed him lightly, he seemed happier already._

"_Whatever…"  
_

"_Well yes it is that kind of present but you won't see it till we get there and only if you're a good boy,"  
_

"_I'm always good," He said as he kissed her again._

"_Liar,"  
_

"_What you gonna do about it," He smiled as his lips met hers again. Eventually they both emerged from the bedroom, after showering and getting dressed or re-dressed in her case. They walked out to see Tim and Conner playing football in the living room. She swore she'd told Tim over a hundred times about playing soccer in the house._

"_Timothy Joseph Almeida!"__ She said straight away causing Tim to look round._

"_Hey what's with the full name?" Tim said pretending to be shocked._

"_What have I told you about balls in the house?" _

"_Um can't remember," _

"_I swear if you've broken anything…" She started; she would actually kill him this time. Breaking Lisa's window was bad enough…  
_

"_Honey," Tony whispered in her ear so she stopped her rant._

"_Give it here," She said as she moved over to them. Reluctantly Tim handed it over._

"_Mommy," Conner tried to protest, grabbing at the ball._

"_Not a chance, this is going away unless you're outside,"  
_

"_Daddy," Conner tried._

"_Oh no your big brother has been teaching you bad habits," She said as she glared at Tim, she would be having words with him about a few things later._

"_Hey I…"  
_

"_Tim shut up, you're excuses suck," Tony said as he moved into the kitchen pouring himself some cereal._

"_No they don't," Tim said following Tony into the kitchen while she turned back to Conner who was sulking._

"_Conner," She said as she bent down to his level, "Honey there is a reason you play soccer outside…"  
_

"_Football,"  
_

"_Yeah football, but you don't want to break anything do you?" Conner just shook his head, "So next time you want to play with the ball…Tim will take you to the park and you can play with it there," It seemed fair payback for playing with the ball inside after she told him not to.  
_

"_Ok," Conner muttered._

"_Come here," She smiled at him and he did. She hugged him before picking him up and walking to the kitchen, she had another task for Tim.  
_

"_Ah Tim…"  
_

"_Uh oh," Tim said while she just rolled her eyes._

"_Since you seem to have so much energy this morning…" _

"_Ow," Tim called out as he faced Tony._

"_As I was saying as you have so much energy you can go take Jess for a walk…"  
_

"_But I never…" Tim tried to protest before Tony interrupted._

"_Do as she says,"  
_

"_Fine whatever,"  
_

"_Oh I'm so glad we have a teenager," Tony said, smiling at her._

"_You can't blame this on me he's all yours," She said as she stuck her tongue out at Tim._

"_Ooo can really feel the love round here this morning,"  
_

"_Afternoon," Tony quickly corrected._

"_Shut up," Tim said causing both Tony and herself to laugh "Fine I'll take Conner while I'm at it,"  
_

"_Ok," Tony said. _

"_Hey Conner wanna got to the park?" Tim asked to which Conner nodded. She set Conner on the floor who ran off to gets his shoes._

"_We'll catch you up in a bit, make sure you got your phone with you," She told Tim, they trusted Tim with Conner's life, they knew how much he loved him even if he would never say it._

"_As always," Tim said before he headed to the door, "Jess," Then came the constant barking until all three of them were out the door, leaving Tony and her alone._

"_Hungry?" Tony inquired as he went for his second bowl._

"_Na I ate earlier," She said as she felt his arm wrap around her and pull her onto his lap._

"_Where's your sister?" She asked as he continued eating, knowing Lisa would be here if she was still in the house._

"_Went home,"  
_

"_Why?" It wasn't like her not to say goodbye but then like she said earlier she didn't want to interrupt what she and Tony got up to.  
_

"_Dunno Tim told me," He said._

"_Ah ok. Well I better give her a call," She said as she got off him._

"_Why?"  
_

"_So I can ask her if she can look after Conner while we're away,"  
_

"_Oh yeah," He said as he went back to his food. She spent about an hour talking to Lisa, straight away she agreed to have Conner and then they spent quite a while on Jason and then clothes and other things, but eventually Lisa said she needed to call a client and so they'd said their goodbyes._

"_Finally," Tony said as she sat down next to him after hanging up the phone.  
_

"_Hey we owe her big time for this," She said as she cuddled up to him._

"_I think this balances out all of those parties I bailed her out off which Mum and Dad would kill her for going to," He said as he kissed her head._

"_Haven't heard these before," Tony told her loads of stories from their childhood but he'd never mentioned these before and he usually told her about these things.  
_

"_I'm sworn to secrecy," He smiled._

"_We're married we should have no secrets," She said._

"_Another time. We better go find Tim and Conner," He said they got up. On the way there they got a call from Chappelle telling them the briefing was at five thirty so she had to call Lisa again but Tony had sighed, saying that it didn't need to take an hour and so called her himself. After two minutes he was done and told her that Lisa had agreed, he then decided to tease her about how easy it was to make a phone call only last two minutes and not go off about random things. 5 minutes later they parked the car and after a few minutes of looking around the park they spotted Conner sliding down one of the slides._

"_Hey when did he start going using the slides?" Tony asked._

"_Ever since Tim showed it to him,"  
_

"_God he'd do anything Tim told him,"  
_

"_Yep," She agreed._

"_Scary ain't it," He said causing her to laugh. She thought it was more sweet then scary. Tim loved having a younger brother to entertain and Conner loved having Tim as an older brother since Tim would teach him all these new things. She was almost certain Tim would end up taking Conner to his first soccer match, buying him his first drink, get him out of all sorts of trouble that she and Tony would never have any idea about and no doubt help him out with girls when he was older, although she wasn't sure that was such a good idea but the thought just made her smile. They were along way from that._

"_I think it's kinda cute," She smiled as he wrapped an arm around her._

"_You do until Tim teaches him all his bad habits like kicking the ball inside," He laughed._

"_Just be grateful that's all it is," She said._

"_Hey you know since Conner will be three quite soon, you think we should start work on another baby?" He smiled at her as his hand slid across her stomach._

"_You want another baby?" She questioned as she opened the gate to the play area._

"_Honey you know I want a big family," And she would definitely love another child and very much a girl but she would love another son just as much. Although it was hard work at the moment and another child would not make things easier.  
_

"_Yeah but with CTU…"  
_

"_It's working ok with Conner isn't it and Tim's turned out pretty well…"  
_

"_Not what you were saying the other day,"  
_

"_You know why that was,"  
_

"_Yep. Why don't we talk about this another time," She needed time to think more seriously about it, on paper it was a great idea but things were different in real life.  
_

"_Ok but…"  
_

"_You know you can never let anything go," She laughed._

"_Sorry," He said bowing his head._

"_It's fine and you know I want more kids as well but I just don't know if now is the right time,"_

"_Ok," He said as he kissed the top of her head._

"_But we can still continuing practising," She smiled at him._

"_Sweetheart we'll never stop practising cause you're just too good looking for me not to take advantage of you," He smiled causing her to laugh._

"_Mommy daddy," Conner called out as he jumped off the slide and ran towards them. As soon as he was close enough Tony picked Conner up spinning him around._

"_Did you see me?" Conner asked as he was placed on the floor, "Did you see me?"  
_

"_Yes sweetie," She said as she kissed him, "You wanna show us again?"  
_

"_Yeah," Conner said running off and climbing back up the ladder. _

"_Hey mate," Tony said and she turned to see Tim came to a halt in front of them._

"_Hey,"  
_

"_So how's he been?" She asked as they all watched Conner fly down the slide._

"_I swear that kid's got more energy then anyone,"  
_

"_Well if anyone can keep up with him it's you," Tony smiled at Tim._

"_Gee thanks dad,"  
_

"_Don't deny it__ anyway we know you love having a younger brother," She said._

"_Yeah whatever,"_

"_Aww teenager speak for I love it," Tony said.  
_

"_Dad," Tim protested while she and Tony just smiled. Just then Conner came flying off the slide hitting the floor. She rushed over straight away as they heard the cries from Conner and returned a few moments with him in her arms sobbing into her shoulder._

"_Hey buddy," Tony said as she handed Conner to him. They checked him over just to find a few grazes._

"_Think we got some plasters in the car," She told them._

"_Ok," Tony said and they headed back to the car park. On the way Tim tried funny faces and jokes to get Conner to stop crying which worked pretty well as by the time they reached the car Conner was laughing. As soon as the door was open Jess jumped in pulling the lead from her hand. Tony tended to Conner while she and Tim waited outside._

"_There you go all better," Tony said as he wiped Conner's face._

"_Think we should go back home then," She said._

"_No," Conner said immediately._

"_No?" She questioned._

"_Swings," Conner said smiling._

"_Oh yeah kinda promised we go on the swings since we had to walk Jess first. And when I say walk I mean I carried Conner most of the way while chucking the ball for Jess. So you know I'm actually fine to go home now," Tim yawned._

"_No swings," Came Conner's voice again._

"_Ok sweetie," She said. For the next hour she just watched Tim and Conner playing, while helping to push Conner on the swing. Tony on the other hand took Jess for a run so they wouldn't have to take her out again until tomorrow. As she looked over she saw Tony collapse on the bench and Jess on the floor beside him._

"_Good run?" She asked as she came and sat next to him._

"_Yep," He said as he wiped his forehead and then wiped his hand on her arm, "Nice and sweaty,"  
_

"_Eww Tony," She squealed as she shot up._

"_Yes honey,"  
_

"_That's disgusting,"_

"_What you like it when we're making love,"  
_

"_That's different and anyway you can't say that sort of stuff here there's kids,"  
_

"_Oh yeah don't think they heard," He laughed. After another half an hour Conner had finally tired himself out and they all agreed to head home before they had to go out to the briefing._


	7. Chapter 7: The Briefing

_Sorry it took a bit longer to post then I'd planned, the next one will be up quicker. _

**Chapter 7 – The briefing**

Tony spent another 20 minutes trying to loosen the fourth bar. It seemed impossible until he suddenly flew backwards watching the metal fall to the floor. Again Michelle was at his side.

"You ok?" She asked and he nodded. He went to get up but heard voices.

"Shit," He said as he hurried to the window slotting the bars in place, hopefully no one would notice they weren't welded against the wall anymore. He headed over to Michelle who had already got Tim to tie her back up, leaving the ropes lose enough so she could wiggle free if she had to.

"Dad," TIm called and pointed to the rope lying on the floor by the window which had been used to bind his hands. He quickly grabbed it and headed back to Tim letting him tie him up, doing the same as he'd done to Michelle, giving the illusion he was firmly secured when in fact he could slip out of the ropes fairly easily.

"We're gonna have to hope they put us back in here, otherwise…" He started knowing Michelle already knew that if they weren't put back in here they'd be killed.

"Otherwise we'll think of something," Michelle managed a reassuring smile before moving closer and placing her lips of his. He returned the kiss for a few moments just remembering how good it felt to feel her, knowing it could be the last. He pulled back and turned to Tim.

"Just pretend to be unconscious for as long as you can ok,"

"Yeah ok," Tim said, "But…"

"No buts no matter what they say you pretend to be unconscious that way they won't hurt you…"

"Yeah they will they'll wake me up they've got that stuff that you smell, you know…Jack told me,"

"Tim please just…" But he stopped as the door opened.

"Oh is he awake?" One of the guards asked.

"Thought that last blow to the head might have done him in," The other laughed.

"No he's still out of it thanks to you lot," Tony spat out angrily.

"Good to hear," They said as they lifted Tim up and dragged him out of the room shutting the door behind them.

"Hey where are you taking him? Hey…." Tony yelled rushing to the door. Why the hell had this happened?

_By 5:30 he, Michelle and Tim were all sitting down in the briefing room with a couple of others including Jack and Chloe waiting for Chappelle's arrival. _

"_Still don't think we should do this," He whispered to Michelle._

"_Honey believe it or not I do know your feelings on this matter,"  
_

"_So…"  
_

"_So shut up," She smiled at him. He just turned back in his chair to see Chappelle walk in followed by Hammond._

"_Sorry about the delay, so let's get on with this," Chappelle said as he took his seat while Hammond walked round to the front and began the briefing. Half through and he still hadn't learnt any new information, all that had been said was what he'd already been told and their background information. Plus a few other things like who would be monitoring them. As he looked back to the screen a picture of Landon flicked up and Chappelle starting talking about the information they had gathered so far on him. 10 minutes later and another picture popped up on the screen, it was a teenage girl around Tim's age, she had long auburn hair, brown eyes and was obviously any teenage boys dream girlfriend._

"_This is Katherine Landon, Landon's daughter, his only child…" Suddenly something clicked in his brain._

"_So this is what you wanted Tim for," He announced looking at Chappelle._

"_Sorry Tony," _

"_This is what you wanted Tim for," By now all eyes were on him._

"_What is that supposed to mean?"  
_

"_Oh don't play dumb, they're about the same age, both single I assume. So what now__? It's set the terrorists kids up and get them to do the dirty work?"  
_

"_Tony I think you're reading far too much into this," Chappelle said. _

"_No I think I'm finally starting to understand what the hell is going on here," He yelled as he got up._

"_I think you should go and calm down,"  
_

"_No I think you should tell us what you really expect to happen on this mission, you don't care about me and Michelle, you just want Tim so he can…"  
_

"_Ta__ke him outside," Chappelle said as the guard walked over to him._

"_Don't touch me," He said to the guard, he was right. He knew they were up to something and this, this made sense._

"_Come on Tony," Jack said as he moved in between them and pushed him towards the door._

"_Don't get involved Jack," He said pushing Jack away and heading for Chappelle. Just as he was about to continue his rant Jack and the guard grabbed him forcing him outside._

"_Get off me!" He snapped pushing them away._

"_Tony calm down!" Jack yelled at him.__ He thought of all people Jack would understand where he was coming from._

"_Don't tell me to calm down! How the hell would you feel if this was Kim and Kate we were talking about hey…"  
_

"_Tony I know how you feel but…"  
_

"_No you don't Jack now back off and let me in there," But again Jack pushed him back. __It wasn't going to stop him, he'd happily fight his way back into that room but just as he was about to barge past him he saw Michelle come out of the room and head towards them._

"_Can you give us a minute?" She asked Jack who nodded and moved out of the way._

"_Don't you see this is what I was taking about…" He started but she cut him off._

"_Tony look I know you think…"__ How could she not see this it was so obvious?  
_

"_No chelle I know this is what their plan is, they want Tim not us…"  
_

"_Yeah,"__ Yeah? Was she agreeing with him?  
_

"_Huh?" He said slightly shocked._

"_I think you may have a point,"  
_

"_How come?"  
_

"_Because after you were dragged out Chappelle said it would still work if we were on board with it and he asked Tim…"  
_

"_Yeah," He said slightly confused_

"_He just asked Tim if he was still ok with it, he didn't even remember I was apart of it until Hammond butted in,"__ He knew it!  
_

"_See I told you they were up to something,"  
_

"_Tony right now is not the time for I told you so,"__ She did have a point there.  
_

"_Sorry,"  
_

"_It's ok so what are we gonna do about this?"__ What he'd wanted to do from the beginning.  
_

"_Tell __them we're not doing it, they can't make us" He said._

"_Ok," Sh__e said and they headed back to the situation room._

"_It's off we're not doing it," He announced as they walked back in._

"_Tony I thought we'd been through this…" Chappelle started.  
_

"_Both me and Michelle have agreed we're not doing this and nor is Tim," He told them while Tim just looked at him.  
_

"_I think Tim is old enough to make his __own decisions," Chappelle said, like hell he was._

"_Well I don't think he is in this area," He said, this was not happening and the sooner Chappelle got that through his head the better._

"_Well then Tim I think this is down to you, do you want to help save millions of people or let them die…" Chappelle started._

"_Oh cut the crap," He yelled. _

"_Don't manipulate him__ like that," Michelle joined in, he couldn't believe they'd actually try that, especially in front of him._

"_Fine Tim what do you think?"  
_

"_Stop putting pressure on him, I'm his father and I say he's not doing it,"  
_

"_This is not your choice Almeida. Now fine I cant make you do this mission because we have other people to fill in so there won't be consequences for that but if you hinder this operation because you don't let Tim make up his own mind there will be serious repercussions," Chappelle yelled at him before turning back to Tim, "What do you say Tim?"_

"_Um…"  
_

"_This is crazy you can't do this," Michelle interrupted._

"_Will you please have Agent Dessler and Almeida removed," Hammond butted in._

"_What? No…" But the guards grabbed them taking the outside._

"_Shit," He said as he punched the wall._

"_Tony," Michel__le said as she came over to him, he couldn't stop him, he couldn't stop this._

"_He's going to say yes," He said still facing the wall, Michelle by his side._

"_He won't, he knows how we feel I think he'll be sensible enough to…"  
_

"_I know but they're gonna trick him into it, make him feel guilty if he doesn't say yes and there's nothing we can do," There really wasn't, if Hammond wanted something he got it...he didn't care who he hurt or by what process he got it, as long as the job got done he couldn't care less.  
_

"_Yes there is," She said._

"_What?"  
_

"_Ok so Tim's going to say yes, so we say yes and we go on this thing. We keep away from everyone they list as a possible associate and we definitely keep away from Landon and his daughter. We make this clear to Tim and we be very careful," She told him. He really wished there was some sort of alternative but he couldn't seem to find one so what Michelle said seemed like the best possible idea to him. They could do this, they were smart, they could outsmart Chappelle at his own game. Yes it was a serious mission but they could have got__ten someone else to do it and obviously there was not a serious threat if they were willing to let them do this on the off chance that they may hear something, which they definitely wouldn't. So they didn't have to worry about the fact millions off people would be killed because of their choices. If it was serious they would not be sending Tim in they would get someone properly trained in and get the information that way. _

"_Ok," He said eventually. They stood waiting for another 10 minutes or so before Tim came out. He looked slightly scared as he came over to them._

"_Um…" He started but stopped._

"_You said yes," Michelle said and he nodded._

"_Look I know you said not to and both of you came in and..."  
_

"_It's ok," He said, this wasn't Tim's fault this was Chappelle and Hammond's._

"_Huh?" Tim said as he looked at them._

"_We know you didn't really have a choice," Michelle said, he knew Tim would never be forced into doing anything he didn't want to, he was strong but he wouldn't have had a clue how to handle Chappelle and Hammond.  
_

"_I did, I should have said something but…"  
_

"_They can be very…persuasive," He said gritting his teeth which made Michelle grab his hand.  
_

"_Sorry I…"  
_

"_Don't worry but there's some things we want to talk to you about," He told Tim._

* * *

Tim did exactly as his dad said and just pretended to be unconscious as again he was dragged along. He really wanted to open his eyes to see where he was, where he was being taken to or maybe an exit. But he was too scared; if they knew he was awake…it was better if they thought he was unconscious. 

"In there, Paul will be here in a minute," Someone said, it wasn't one of the guards; it was someone's voice he didn't recognise.

"Okay," The guard said and he heard the door open before he felt them dragging him inside and chucking him on the floor. God that hurt and he tried his best not scream in pain or make any signs that he was awake but it was so hard when he just wanted to yell and grab his head since it was killing him.

"Should we tie him up?" One of them asked as he gritted his teeth, it was the most he could do until they left.

"Na he's out of it," The other said and he heard the footsteps, then the door open and close as they left the room.

_By 5:30 they were all sitting down in the briefing room at CTU with some other people who must have worked there, the only person he recognised was Jack. He just sat opposite his dad and Michelle as they waited. He didn't know what to say so he just kept quite; it wasn't like he could just make a joke or anything. A few moments later Chappelle walked in followed by Hammond._

"_Sorry about the delay, so let's get on with this," Chappelle said as he took his seat while Hammond walked round to the front and began the briefing. He sat quietly while they talked and tried to take as many mental notes as possible, it didn't seem too hard. He found out more about Landon and that Chase would be monitoring them, that they were to check in with him every other day and he would be working as a waiter there just encase. Then Landon's picture popped back up again and Chappelle starting talking about the information they had gathered so far on him. 10 minutes later and another picture popped up on the screen, it was a teenage girl around his age. He was sure his jaw dropped slightly as he studied her picture._

"_This is Katherine Landon, Landon's daughter, his only child…" Chappelle began until his dad interrupted._

"_So this is what you wanted Tim for," _

"_Sorry Tony," _

"_This is what you wanted Tim for," __By now everyone was looking at his dad and he realised he was shrinking in his chair, why did his dad have to do this?_

"_What is that supposed to mean?" Chappelle asked taking a step towards him as if it was showing his power or something. No wonder they never got on they always seemed to argue about something.  
_

"_Oh don't play dumb, they're about the same age, both single I assume. So what now it's set the terrorists kids up and get them to do the dirty work?" That was stupid like the government would really be that desperate that they have to set up terrorists kids, Michelle was right his dad really did need a holiday.  
_

"_Tony I think you're reading far too much into this," Chappelle said. _

"_No I think I'm finally starting to understand what the hell is going on here," His dad yelled as he got up. _

"_I think you should go and calm down,"  
_

"_No I think you should tell us what you really expect to happen on this mission, you don't care about me and Michelle you just want Tim so he can…"  
_

"_Take him outside," Chappelle said. He could see Chappelle was worried but it did look like his dad was about to punch him._

"_Don't touch me," His dad yelled at the guard._

"_Come on Tony," Jack said as he moved in between his dad and the guard and pushed his dad towards the door._

"_Don't get involved Jack," His dad said pushing Jack away and heading for Chappelle. He didn't know if he should get up and help, he looked to Michelle. S__he was standing but she wasn't moving. As he looked back he realised why, Jack and the guard had already grabbed his dad and were forcing him outside._

"_Get off me!" He heard his dad yell but then Chappelle shut the door. He couldn't hear any more but he could see how angry his dad was, he saw him shove Jack but then something blocked his view. _

"_Right sorry about that I think Tony just needs some time to calm down," Chappelle said as he looked up to him. He realised Chappelle wasn't going to move until he looked back at the presentation._

"_Yes so let's get back on with this," Hammond said but it took him a moment to turn back and as he looked across he saw Michelle was still standing, probably trying to decide if she should go outside or not._

"_I know that Tony isn't happy about this mission but as long as you're still on board we can still do this. So what do you say Tim?" Chappelle asked him. He turned to face them realising everyone who was left in the room was also looking at him. _

"_Look I know you want to do what's right. Your dad is just a bit worried but that's natural. Everybody gets nervous about missions but it'll be fine so what do you say?" He just looked at Chappelle and then the picture behind him. _

"_Tim?"  
_

"_Um…yeah I guess…ok," He spat out awkwardly. It would be ok, Chappelle was probably right, his dad was just nervous._

"_Right, great so let's get on with…" Chappelle started._

"_I assume you're still ok with this Michelle," Hammond interrupted. That couldn't be good could it? Did Chappelle just forget about Michelle? Maybe his dad was right; maybe they were only interested in him._

"_I'm gonna go check on Tony," She said and left the room. He didn't say anything else but just sat there, Chappelle and Hammond ended up talking to each other and Hammond didn't look happy. The others in the room all excused themselves for some reason or another which just left him alone with Hammond and Chappelle. After a few minutes his dad and Michelle came back in followed by a few guards._

"_It's off we're not doing it," His dad announced._

"_Tony I thought we'd been through this…"__ Chappelle started  
_

"_Both me and Michelle have agreed we're not doing this and nor is Tim," H__is dad told them which made him look his dad in the eye. He knew that if both his dad and Michelle had agreed not to do this there was a good reason. Maybe it really wasn't safe; he should probably just say no that would stop the whole thing.  
_

"_I think Tim is old enough to make his own decisions," Chappelle said. __That wasn't good, he couldn't just make up his mind like that he needed to talk to his dad and Michelle._

"_Well I don't think he is in this area," His dad said. He was probably right, yeah his parents both worked for the government and he knew a hell of a lot more then most people but they did shield him from a lot__ too._

"_Well then Tim I think this is down to you, do you want to help save millions of people or let them die…" Chappelle started. What that wasn't fair? Of course he didn't want people to die._

"_Oh cut the crap," His dad yelled._

"_Don't manipulate him like that," Michelle joined in._

"_Fine Tim what do you think?"  
_

"_Stop putting pressure on him, I'm his father and I say he's not doing it," He just looked back and fourth as they argued.  
_

"_This is not your choice Almeida. Now fine I cant make you do this mission because we have other people to fill in so there won__'t be consequences for that but if you hinder this operation because you don't let Tim make up his own mind there will be serious repercussions," Chappelle yelled at his dad before turning back to him, "What do you say Tim?" He had no idea what to say, obviously his dad and Michelle knew something he didn't but Chappelle was making it sound like if he didn't agree he'd be letting hundreds of people die and he couldn't do that._

"_Um…" He started  
_

"_This is crazy you can't do this," Michelle interrupted._

"_Will you please have Agent Dessler and Almeida removed," Hammond butted in._

"_What? No…" But the guards grabbed them taking the outside. What was he supposed to do now?_

"_Um I should go…" He started as he stood up._

"_Sit down," Hammond growled, which immediately did, he didn't really want to mess with this guy._

"_Look I know your dad and Michelle…"  
_

"_Sit down Ryan," Hammond said and just like he had done Chappelle sat immediately, "Tim I know what your thinking and yes of course there is going to be some danger but your parents are worrying a little too much which is clouding their judgement,"_

"_But…"  
_

"_Just hear me out. Both your parents are very good agents and we would hate to see anything happen to either one of them," Was that a threat? It's not like they would kill them or anything, "They both have great careers ahead of them and we wouldn't want anything to stop that would we," _

"_No," He said, so that's what Hammond was on about._

"_Look I know you may be nervous but this is one of the safest missions we have ever carried out… Tim if you do this you will help save millions of lives. If you don't then we don't what could happen. You wouldn't want millions of people to die knowing you could have done something do you?"  
_

"_No," He said, of course he didn't...but if he didn't do it there would be another way to stop it wouldn't there? _

"_Of course we know you want to do what your parents say," Chappelle continued and he nodded, "But like Brad said their judgement will be clouded, they're overprotective of you because they don't want you to get hurt. Which of course is a good thing but we need to look at the bigger picture here. You understand right?"  
_

"…_Yeah," He was pretty certain he was being manipulated here but he had no idea what to do, "Look I get what you're saying but I think I should talk to my dad…"  
_

"_Tim we need a decision from you not your parents," Chappelle said._

"_Like I said earlier both your dad and Michelle could be severely punished for not letting you take part," Hammond added. He didn't want them to be punished because of him and he was sure from the way his dad and Michelle talked about them it was a threat they could keep._

"_But it would be my decision," He said, hopefully he could get out of here and talk to his dad first._

"_Tim if you make up your own mind you'll be able to tell us your decision right here right now," Chappelle told him._

"_I…um…"  
_

"_Look Tim you could be a hero, you could save so many peoples lives, you don't want to condemn them to death just because you didn't want to take part in a safe mission do you?" No that was stupid its not like he could say yes and it wasn't like he was condemning people to death if he didn't do it was it?_

"_I err,"  
_

"_Come on Tim you'll be fine, we'll be there with you all the time and you would be a hero to this country. If you don't so many people could die, we don't know where they intend to launch this attack. What if its here and we don't stop it? I'm sure you wouldn't want anything to happen to your dad, Michelle or your aunt and what about your little brother Conner? You don't want anything to happen to him do you?"  
_

"_No, no of course I don't," He said immediately._

"_So do this Tim, save them" Hammond said._

"_Uh look…" He started as he began to stand __up; he needed to get out of here.  
_

"_You know it was peopl__e like this who murdered your mom," Hammond said which made him sink back in his chair, he wasn't expecting that._

"_Tim you don't want to let people like this get away with it, it would be like letting them get away with killing your mother," He just sat quietly, why the hell did they have to bring his mum into this?_

"_No,"__ Suddenly all he could hear was his own heartbeat, pounding against his chest.  
_

"_So get them back, do this mission," Chappelle said._

"…_.Ok," Had he really just said that, he'd agreed to it but he didn't care at the moment all he could think about was what they had said, people like that had killed his mum. Before he knew it he was out the door and heading to his dad and Michelle, He knew they'd manipulated him but after they mentioned his mum he couldn't think straight. Finally he stopped in front of them_

"_Um…" He started but stopped._

"_You said yes," Michelle said and he nodded._

"_Look I know you said not to and both of you came in and..."  
_

"_It's ok," His dad said, that wasn't exactly what he was expecting._

"_Huh?" He said._

"_We know you didn't really have a choice," Michelle said, yeah that was putting it mildly. If he didn't say yes they would have made him feel so guilty he would have to agree to it.  
_

"_I did, I should have said something but…"  
_

"_They can be very…persuasive," His dad said, yeah persuasive, if his dad knew what they had said he would have killed Chappelle and Hammond.  
_

"_Sorry I…"  
_

"_Don't worry but there's some things we want to talk to you about," His dad told him._

* * *

Michelle was by Tony's side as he bashed on the door screaming that they bring Tim back. 

"Tony," She said as she slipped out of the rope binding her hands.

"You bastards! Bring him back here!" Tony yelled again.

"Sweetie," She said placing a hand on his back.

"They can't do this, they can't do it to him…he's…he's only a kid," He said turning to her, she saw the desperation in his eyes. He would do anything to save him right now and she could see that.

"Honey," She said as she pulled him into a hug, there was nothing more she could say. They both knew what had happened, where they were taking Tim…he was about to be tortured.

_By 5:30 they were all sitting down in the briefing room with a couple of others including Jack and Chloe waiting for Chappelle's arrival. _

"_Still don't think we should do this," Tony whispered to her._

"_Honey believe it or not I do know your feelings on this matter," On the way here Tony had decided to remind her of it several times but every time she asked for a concrete reason he didn't have one.  
_

"_So…"  
_

"_So shut up," She smiled at him and then looked past him to see Chappelle walk in followed by Hammond._

"_Sorry about the delay, so let's get on with this," Chappelle said as he took his seat while Hammond walked round to the front and began the briefing. She sat there taking in what she was told and commenting or asking questions when it was needed. Every time she looked over at Tony she knew he analysing every detail, trying to find something to prove his point._

"_This is Katherine Landon, Landon's daughter, his only child…" Chappelle started._

"_So this is what you wanted Tim for," Tony announced looking at Chappelle._

"_Sorry Tony," Oh God he's going to start something in front everyone._

"_This is what you wanted Tim for," By now all eyes were on him._

"_What is that supposed to mean?" Chappelle asked.  
_

"_Oh don't play dumb, they're about the same age, both single I assume. So what now it's set the terrorists kids up and get them to do the dirty work?"  
_

"_Tony I think you're reading far too much into this," Chappelle said, she really hoped he was, the government couldn't be that desperate could they?_

"_No I think I'm finally starting to understand what the hell is going on here," Tony yelled as he got up._

"_I think you should go and calm down,"  
_

"_No I think you should tell us what you really expect to happen on this mission, you don't care about me and Michelle, you just want Tim so he can…"  
_

"_Take him outside," Chappelle said and she sighed, she needed to stop Tony getting into any trouble but she also needed to figure out if what Tony said was true, he wouldn't have made a scene like that if he didn't really believe it._

"_Don't touch me," Tony said to the guard and she stood up, she needed to intervene before Tony did some real damage._

"_Come on Tony," Jack said as he moved in between them and pushed Tony towards the door while she just stayed standing, allowing Jack to handle Tony._

"_Don't get involved Jack," Tony said pushing Jack away and heading for Chappelle. Just as he was about to continue his rant Jack and the guard grabbed him forcing him outside. She rubbed her head, trying to figure out what to do._

"_Get off me!" She heard Tony yell at Jack, she really should go after him. _

"_Right sorry about that I think Tony just needs some time to calm down," Chappelle said as she stayed looking towards Tony and Jack. Why wasn't she moving?_

"_Yes so let's get back on with this," Hammond said._

"_I know that Tony isn't happy about this mission but as long as you're still on board we can still do this. So what do you say Tim?" Chappelle asked Tim. Suddenly she tuned into the conversation. _

"_Look I know you want to do what's right. Your dad is just a bit worried but that's natural. Everybody gets nervous about missions but it'll be fine so what do you say?" __Chappelle asked. Shouldn't Chappelle be more worried about her saying no after what had just happened to Tony?_

"_Tim?"  
_

"_Um…yeah I guess…ok," Tim spat out awkwardly._

"_Right, great so let's get on with…" Chappelle started, that wasn't right had Chappelle just forgotten about her. Tony may actually have something, she had gotten pretty good at reading Chappelle by now and stayed staring at him._

"_I assume you're still ok with this Michelle," Hammond interrupted but she stayed looking at Chappelle who made eye contact with her for a moment before looking straight at Hammond but she had what she needed. She'd seen that look on Chappelle before and that meant Tony was right, they wanted Tim for something not her and __not Tony._

"_I'm gonna go check on Tony," She said and left the room, Chappelle would be mentally kicking himself right now and Hammond would probably yell at him later but right now she had to talk to Tony and stop this taking place. Quickly she walked outside and saw Tony across the other side of the floor, looking like he was about to hit Jack just to get past him. So as fast as possible she headed over to them._

"_Can you give us a minute?" She asked Jack who nodded and moved out of the way._

"_Don't you see this is what I was taking about…" Tony started but she cut him off._

"_Tony look I know you think…"  
_

"_No Chelle I know this is what their plan is, they want Tim not us…"  
_

"_Yeah," Why couldn't he have just let her finish.  
_

"_Huh?" He said slightly shocked._

"_I think you may have a point,"  
_

"_How come?"  
_

"_Because after you were dragged out Chappelle said it would still work if we were on board with it and he asked Tim…"  
_

"_Yeah," He said slightly confused_

"_He just asked Tim if he was still ok with it, he didn't even remember I was apart of it until Hammond butted in," She explained, she couldn't believe he was__ right, she never thought that Chappelle and Hammond would ever be this desperate.  
_

"_See I told you they were up to something,"  
_

"_Tony right now is not the time for I told you so,"  
_

"_Sorry," He said and she knew he was.  
_

"_It's ok so what are we gonna do about this?"  
_

"_Tell them we're not doing it, they can't make us," He said._

"_Ok," She said and they headed back in. She knew it was best to let Tony argue his point, he knew what he was doing and he'd had to deal with office politics far more then she had._

"_It's off we're not doing it," He announced as they walked back in._

"_Tony I thought we'd been through this…"  
_

"_Both me and Michelle have agreed we're not doing this and nor is Tim," He told them while Tim just looked at him.  
_

"_I think Tim is old enough to make his own decisions," Chappelle said. _

"_Well I don't think he is in this area," Tony said, he was right and even though Tim may protest she didn't think anyone was qualified to make a judgement in this area unless they had proper CTU training. As far as she was concerned there was no other way to know what you could be getting yourself into._

"_Well then Tim I think this is down to you, do you want to help save millions of people or let them die…" Chappelle started, she couldn't believe he would actually sink that low._

"_Oh cut the crap," Tony yelled._

"_Don't manipulate him like that," She joined in._

"_Fine Tim what do you think?"  
_

"_Stop putting pressure on him, I'm his father and I say he's not doing it,"  
_

"_This is not your choice Almeida. Now fine I cant make you do this mission because we have other people to fill in so there won't be consequences for that but if you hinder this operation because you don't let Tim make up his own mind there will be serious repercussions," Chappelle yelled at him before turning back to Tim, "What do you say Tim?"_

"_Um…"  
_

"_This is crazy you can't do this," She interrupted._

"_Will you please have Agent Dessler and Almeida removed," Hammond butted in._

"_What? No…" But the guards grabbed them taking the outside._

"_Shit," Tony said as he punched the wall._

"_Tony," She said as she came over to him._

"_He's going to say yes," _

"_He wont, he knows how we feel I think he'll be sensible enough to…"  
_

"_I know but they're gonna trick him into it, make him feel guilty if he doesn't say yes and there's nothing we can do,"  
_

"_Yes there is," She said, Tony was right they__ would pressure him into saying yes but she had a plan._

"_What?"  
_

"_Ok so Tim's going to say yes, so we say yes and we go on this thing. We keep away from everyone they list as a possible associate and we definitely keep away from Landon and his daughter. We make this clear to Tim and we will be very careful," She told him. _

"_Ok," He said eventually. They stood waiting for another 10 minutes or so before Tim came out. He looked slightly scared as he came over to them._

"_Um…" He started but stopped._

"_You said yes," She said and he nodded._

"_Look I know you said not to and both of you came in and..."  
_

"_It's ok," Tony said. This wasn't Tim's fault this was Chappelle and Hammond's, they both knew it._

"_Huh?" Tim said as he looked at them._

"_We know you didn't really have a choice," She said, she still couldn't believe they'd actually done this, she had thought better of Chappelle but maybe she was wrong the whole time.  
_

"_I did, I should have said something but…" Tim started.  
_

"_They can be very…persuasive," Tony said gritting his teeth which made her grab his hand.  
_

"_Sorry I…"  
_

"_Don't worry but there's some things we want to talk to you about," Tony told Tim. They could do this, they could control it, and they could beat Chappelle and Hammond at their own game. She turned to Tony before speaking._

"_Let me handle this. I'll meet you in the car," She told him._

"_Chelle…"Tony started.  
_

"_Talk to Tim, I'll handle Chappelle and Hammond," She told him. For a moment he thought about it before nodding his head._

"_Come on Tim," He said as he placed his hands on Tim's shoulders and directed him towards the car park. Taking a deep breath she turned around and headed to the situation room._

"_Michelle," Jack called out just before she was about to enter._

"_Yeah,"  
_

"_Are you guys ok?" Jack asked._

"_They're up to something, Tony's right…"  
_

"_I know and I'm trying to find out what they need this guy for but…"  
_

"_You can__'t find anything, no one can," She finished._

"_I'll keep looking into it and if I find anything, anything at all I'll get you out of there as soon as I can," Jack told her.  
_

"_Thanks Jack,"  
_

"_Don't let them make you do anything, Tony's right there is something weird going on here," _

"_But we have no proof, so…"  
_

"_You have no choice," Jack finished for her and she nodded._

"_Look I need to sort this out and then we need to get going," She said._

"_Be careful ok," Jack told her.  
_

"_I will," She said and hugged him before heading into the conference room._

"_Michelle," Chappelle said as she stood in front of them._

"_We're doing it," She said keeping her face straight so they couldn't read it but they would have been able to hear the anger in her voice._

"_Good," Hammond said, "You'll need these," He handed the files to Chappelle who then handed them to her. She snatched them from his hands and watched as his eyes fell to the floor, she knew he was starting to feel bad._

"_Background information is in there, so is the details of where you're staying, your invite…" Chappelle started.  
_

"_I got it," She said._

"_Chase will be working there, he'll make contact with you and you need to check in with him every two days,"_

"_Got it anything else?" She asked to which Chappelle shook his head so she looked to Hammond._

_"You all need new phones, two will be just for show so only use them for ordering a pizza or something, don't call anyone they could trace to you. The other one you can use to contact us if you find anything, it's scrambled. Ask for Uncle Ryan or something…"_

"_Fine," She said as she took the phones from Hammond, resting them on the folders in her hands._

"_Apart from that you're free to do…"  
_

"_We're not free to do anything," She said angrily._

"_You leave at 10:00am and you should aim to arrive for 12:00,"He continued like she hadn't even said the last part._

"_We done now?" She asked and Hammond nodded._

"_Good luck," Chappelle said as she walked out and headed off to Tony and Tim, the files and phones in her hands._


	8. Chapter 8: The Night Before

**Chapter 8 – The Night Before**

Tony just held onto Michelle as tightly as he could, he couldn't believe what was happening. Right now he didn't care what happened to him, if anyone walked in he wouldn't cower in the corner, he wouldn't comply with their demands and he wouldn't, he couldn't stay quite knowing that what he could tell them would save his son. He really wanted to talk but there was still that part of his brain that wouldn't let his mouth open, instead it told him to fight his way out. Because in the end talking wasn't going to save them, it would just end the pain quicker. But still he was stood here, not moving, not talking...just thinking. The truth was they were stuck here, even though Paul was an arrogant, vicious, stupid...the point was he still wasn't stupid enough to let anyone come in at the moment.

"_Come on mate," He said as he guided Tim towards the car. Tim didn't say anything and he decided it was best not to __either until they got out of the way of all the prying ears. No doubt the gossips were having a field day with this at the moment. So silently they walked along the corridors and across the car park until they reached the car. Quickly he reached out grabbing Tim's hand before he had time to grab the handle and escape into the car._

"_We need to talk." He told Tim, who had his eyes to the ground._

"_I'm sorry…"  
_

"_Mate we're past that ok," He told him as placed his hand on Tim's shoulder, "It's not your fault; I know what they're like,"  
_

"_Stupid, manipulative…"Tim started._

"_Yeah and I can think of a few hundred others to describe them but that's not what we need to talk about," With this Tim lifted his eyes to meet his._

"_I'll do what you guys say, I promise," _

"_I know, so here are the rules," He started while Tim focused his eyes on anything other then his stare, "One, don't go anywhere near Landon at all. If you see him you head in the other direction no matter what,"  
_

"_Ok," Tim said._

"_Two, don't go anywhere near his daughter and if you see her you definitely run in the opposite direction…"  
_

"_Why is Katherine so much worse then her dad?" Tim asked while he sighed. He'd used her name and he'd only been told it once. And if he knew once thing about his son it was that his memory was not the best in the world so seen as he'd remembered this girl's name it meant that he liked her. Truth be told he was certain that was exactly how his brain had worked when he was Tim's age._

"_Because you're a teenager and hormone crazy…"_

"_Dad," _

"_Trust me, you do stupid things when your hormones take over, go back to primal instincts sort of thing, you won't think rationally and seen as you already fancy this girl…"  
_

"_I don't," He had to the say the expression on Tim's face was priceless but this thing was too serious for him to have fun with it.  
_

"_What's Landon's name?"_

"_Landon,"_

"_Yeah smart arse, first name?" He asked, they may have only been told it a few times but it was more then his kid's._

"_I dunno, does it really matter?" Tim asked._

"_Fine his kid's name,"  
_

"_Katherine," Tim told him while just looking at him like he was mad._

"_You've only been told her name once…"  
_

"_Doesn't mean I like her," Tim protested._

"_Ok...just stay away," He knew arguing about this would be pointless, for some reason Tim could become very stubborn._

"_I will," Tim said._

"_Good. Three any people who we tell you to stay away from…"_

_"I will and if I see them I'll run in the other direction," Tim finished for him, making him smile._

"_Well at least you'll remember that part," He told Tim who just shook his head, _

"_Four. You need to learn the cover stories and we'll test you on the way there tomorrow,"  
_

"_Ok," _

"_Five. You can't say anything about this to anyone at all no matter how close you become to them. You can't say anything in public and you may not be able to say anything at all while we're there but we will check the place where we're staying. If it is bug free then you'll be able to talk about it there but only there. Otherwise when we get there you don't mention anything about your previous life other then what is in the file. You don't say anything about where we live, where relatives live, anything like that. You will be able to mention Conner but don't go into details about him or where he is ok," He explained and Tim nodded._

"_Six. Don't draw attention to yourself in anyway. Just stay in the background. So no fights, no pranks…"  
_

"_Dad I won't," Tim told him._

"_Ok seven…"  
_

"_Can I ask how long this list is?" Tim asked, probably bored by what he was saying._

"_Two more points. So seven. We're going to trust you while we're there so please behave and remember all I said,"  
_

"_Ok got it,"  
_

"_And finally when I say get out the apartment or whatever we're staying in you go out so me and Michelle can have some time…"  
_

"_Oh God dad gross," Tim interrupted while he just laughed, he realised half way through his rant that Tim was going to obey everything he said and decided he needed to lighten the mood.  
_

"_Hey we just want time alone to…discuss the mission,"  
_

"_Yeah right I bet you'll do all of two minutes talking before you do something else," Tim told him a look of disgust in his eyes._

"_Well just remember that one, its important…"  
_

"_Please stop talking," Tim begged him while he just laughed._

"_What's he done now?" Michelle asked and he looked up to see her walking over to them."  
_

"_Nothing," He said innocently as he looked to the files in her hand and the fact that they were crumpled slightly around where she was holding them, something he was sure had happened after she'd been given them._

"_Yeah well you can explain to me later," She said as she came to halt in front of them, the tone of her voice told him all he needed to know.  
_

"_I think I can do that," He smiled while Tim just mumbled something about being mentally scarred._

"_Aww sweetie have you been creeping your son out," Michelle asked him while he just smiled, "Well we better get going and here you go Tim, have fun reading," She said handing Tim one of the files in her hands.  
_

"_What?" Tim asked looking from her to the file and back again.  
_

"_Learn it, that is your…well our life,"  
_

"_All of this?"_

"_Yup enjoy," She smiled at him._

"_Oh good," Tim said rolling his eyes as he climbed in the car while he took her hand._

"_How was it?" He asked._

"_As it always it," She breathed angrily, he could pretty much guess their meeting as it was always the same. They were told what to do, when to do it and how to do it without having any say in anything._

"_I've explained to Tim, we'll be ok," He said trying to reassure her even though he didn't believe it himself._

"_Yeah. You want the scrambled phone?" She asked._

"_Sure," He said as she handed it to him and he slipped it into his pocket.  
_

"_Ask for Uncle Ryan," She sighed as she opened her door._

"_Chelle we'll get through this and who knows maybe you'll be right," He told her while she just nodded and got in the car. He looked up once more and saw Jack standing by the doors to the building. He just nodded at him before getting in the car._

"_Well guess you two have got some reading to do," He said as he looked round to see Michelle and Tim both with a file open on their laps. They both mumbled something or other so he just started the car and headed home, knowing that he would have to read them soon as well. After 30 minutes they were home. As he walked through the door he was bombarded, first by Jess who jumped onto him as soon as he entered the door and then by Conner who followed shortly after._

"_Daddy," Conner called out as he jumped up and down, sticking his arms out at him._

"_Hey Conner," He said as he picked up his son and kissed his head._

"_Lisa?" He called out as he moved further into the house, Tim, Michelle and Jess following after him._

"_Yeah one minute," She yelled back. Once he reached the couch he put Conner down and walked into the kitchen._

"_You have fun?" He almost burst into laughter as she turned around, lines of what __must have been paint across her face. _

"_Finger painting, never again," She told him as she picked up a cloth, wet it under the tap and started scrubbing her face. _

"_But you look so good…."  
_

"_I'm gonna kill you Tony," She told him while he just laughed._

"_Hey," Michelle said as she came to stand by them._

"_Hey…" Lisa started as she turned around._

"_What the hell happened?" Michelle asked; as he looked to her he saw her trying to contain her laughter._

"_Your son," Lisa said as she returned to scrubbing her face._

"_Sorry Lisa," Michelle said while he just kept laughing at her, she couldn't deny it was funny and he knew if Conner had done it to him she would be rolling on the floor laughing at him. Suddenly something hit him in the head. He could feel the water rolling down his face as he grabbed the cloth and pulled it off._

"_Thanks," He said holding it in his hand while trying to rub away the water on his face._

"_We're not even yet," Lisa smiled at him while walking past him._

"_Uh oh," He said still smiling at her face, she had gotten rid of most of the paint but there was still a thick red line across her forehead, for some reason he didn't feel like telling her about it._

"_Tony," Michelle said as she hit him lightly, grinning from ear to ear. Suddenly he heard Conner scream and they quickly rushed to the living room to see Tim holding him upside down, swinging him around._

"_Tim put him down," Michelle said while he and Lisa just smiled at the sight._

"_He wanted to," Tim told her.  
_

"_Yeah well if he's sick then you get to clean it up," Michelle told Tim, which made him quickly turn Conner back up the right way._

"_Sorry Conner your mum's a spoilsport," Tim told Conner as he placed him on the couch._

"_Mommy," Conner looked at her pleading._

"_Whoa Lisa what happened to your face?" Tim suddenly burst out._

"_He did," Lisa said pointing to Conner. He looked to his son who was standing on the couch smiling up at all of them._

"_It's a good look…" Tim started but then ran as Lisa headed towards him. Suddenly he felt someone grab him._

"_Dad protect me," Tim said using him as a human shield.  
_

"_No way," He smiled as Lisa got closer, "Here I sacrifice this one, now we're even," He told Lisa as he grabbed Tim and pushed him in front._

"_Deal," Lisa said as she reached them. He held onto Tim as Lisa grabbed one of the pots of paint off the table and stuck her finger in it.  
_

"_Dad, come on. Please I'll do whatever you want…" Tim said squirming._

"_Na it's ok Tim, like you said it's a good look," He smiled at his son as Lisa rubbed the paint on Tim's face. After she'd painted a few lines across Tim's face he let go and Tim immediately ran off behind the sofa._

"_Right well I better be off then," Lisa told them as she walked to the door, wiping her hands on a cloth on the way before picking up her bag. _

"_See you tomorrow," He said as he walked over to her grabbing Conner on the way and placing him under his arm, which made Conner scream at._

"_And I get told off for doing that," Tim told them._

"_Yeah your point?" Michelle asked._

"_Bye guys. See you in the morning," Lisa said as she opened the door and chucked the cloth at him which he managed to catch before it hit him in the head._

"_Bye," They all said and he closed the door behind her, before turning around to see Tim's face._

"_Think you need to have a shower or something," He told Tim as he dumped the cloth on the table._

"_Smelly," Conner yelled out._

"_He always is," Michelle said as she took Conner from under his arm, "Bed time,"  
_

"_No," Conner said, while he and Tim just watched. _

"_Yep, come on," She said as she headed to the stairs, making him laugh as Conner lay over Michelle's shoulder trying to escape her grasp._

"_Daddy," Conner yelled out._

"_Daddy to the rescue then," He smiled at Tim who just rolled his eyes and then ran off after Michelle and Conner. He caught up to them just as they reached the top of the stairs and grabbed hold of Conner who Michelle was still trying to hold onto._

"_He's all yours tonight," She told him and turned to go back down stairs._

"_Don't you wanna say something to mommy?" He whispered to Conner._

"_Night mommy," Conner called out._

"_Night sweetheart," She said as she walked down the stairs._

"_Come on, let's get you to bed," He said as he spun Conner around and headed to his room._

"_No bed," Conner told him as he sat Conner down on his bed and grabbed his PJs._

"_Yes bed," He smiled at Conner as he changed him._

"_But…" Conner started as he placed him under the duvet. _

"_I'll read you a story ok," He compromised._

"_Ok," Conner agreed as he walked over to the bookshelf and grabbed the first book he found._

"_And for tonight's reading we have…the hungry caterpillar." He said as he walked back to Conner's bed and lay down next to him on it. As soon as his head hit the pillow Conner had grabbed the book and opened it to the first page for him._

"_Thank mate," He laughed while Conner just looked at him and waited for him to start, "Conner there's something I need to tell you,"  
_

"_Story," Conner said, obviously not the least bit concerned by the change in his voice._

"_One minute…just... look mommy and daddy and Tim have to go away for a bit…"  
_

"_Why?" Conner asked._

"_For work, it's only for two weeks and you get to stay with Auntie Lisa," He told Conner._

"_Don't go daddy," Conner said as he wrapped his arms around him, it was then he realised he'd never actually been away from Conner for more then a__ few nights. It was weird and he couldn't actually imagine not seeing Conner for a whole two weeks._

"_We kinda have to mate but you'll get to stay up late with Auntie Lisa and she'll feed you all the stuff mommy tells you not to have," He told Conner as he wrapped one of hi__s arms around him and rubbed his back, "Don't worry we'll bring you back a really good present," With that Conner looked up at him._

"B_ig one?"  
_

"_Yeah a really big one," He told Conner._

"_Ok," Conner reluctantly agreed before settling against his arm._

"_Come on lets read about this caterpillar," He told Conner who nodded as he begun the story. After 10 minutes Conner was fast asleep and so quietly he snuck out of the room and turned off the light before heading downstairs._

"_He asleep?" Michelle asked him as he came into the kitchen._

"_Yep and he knows that we're going tomorrow," He told her as he walked past Tim, who was eating his dinner, over to her._

"_How did he take it?" She asked as she grabbed a plate and put it on the side.  
_

"_He agreed on one condition," He told her as he wrapped his arms around her._

"_What was that?" _

"_We buy him a really big present," He told her as he kissed he neck, which made her smile. He knew she had just realised that they were going to be away from Conner for two weeks and she hadn't been away from him once. He knew it would be playing on her mind but she'd be ok, they all would. After a few minutes he let go of her and they all sat quietly as they ate dinner. Once he was finished Tim left them alone to go pack._

"_It'll be ok," He told her as he watched her play with her food._

"_But I've never been a way from him for one night let alone a two weeks," He smiled slightly, people at work would never believe she had this side to her. There she was totally professional and very guarded, especially since the last mission she went on. He was certain she only ever let her guard down around him. But then he was probably the same, he never showed his vulnerability at work._

"_I know, but it will be ok," He told her as he pushed his plate aside and walked over to her._

"_I'm not hungry anymore," She said as she got up and headed to their bedroom. He followed behind her and just sat on the bed as she started sorting out her clothes._

"_You wanna talk about it?" He asked as he watched her pull out some tops from the wardrobe._

"_No…no I'll be fine," She told him._

"_Ok," He just watched her as she grabbed more clothes and put them into piles on the bed. _

"_You going to pack yours anytime soon?" She asked him._

"_Yes miss," he said as he bowed his head to her which made her smile._

"_Well you can grab the suitcase then," She said and indicated to their suitcase which was above the wardrobe just out of her reach. He nodded as he got up and grabbed it, placing it on the bed._

"_Thanks now go get your clothes," She told him._

"_What ever you say darling," He said as he kissed her cheek and then moved over to the draws and picked out his clothes. After half an hour or so they were packed and the suitcase rested by the doorway. He had decided to lie down on the bed for a well earned rest while Michelle moved around the room doing god knows what. _

"_You might actually want to have a look at these before we go," Michelle told him as she chucked a file at him. Luckily he caught it just before it hit him in the head._

"_Will do," He said and flicked open the file. He spent the next hour or so reading, memorising all the important details before shutting it and chucking it on the bedside table._

"_All done," He said as he turned to face Michelle who was lying next to him reading one of the files.  
_

"_Ok," She said not lifting her gaze._

"_Any chance you're gonna be done soon?" He inquired as he got up and started changing for bed; they actually had to get some sleep tonight._

"_One minute," He just chucked his shirt to the floor before pulling on his cubs t-shirt and climbed back into bed, "Ok done," _

"_Good now lets gets some sleep," He told her as she got up and changed into pyjama bottoms and a top. _

"_Perve," She laughed as she caught him looking at her._

"_It's a husbands right to look at his beautiful wife…"  
_

"_Starring with your mouth hanging open…" She started but he cut her off._

"_My mouth was not hanging open," _

"_Liar," She said as slid into bed next to him and kissed him. He started to kiss her back as he rolled on top of her. After a few moments she pushed him back._

"_We do actually have to sleep," She told him as he started kissing her neck, yeah they did but that could wait a while, "Tony,"  
_

"_Sleep can wait," He mumbled._

"_Tony it's…" She paused for a moment but he kept kissing her, "12:00am we need to sleep,"_

"_But…" He started._

"_Play your cards right tonight," She said as she pulled his face to hers and kissed him before rolling over leaving him breathless._

"_Deal," He told her as he wrapped his arms around her, he just hoped he could wait that long._

* * *

After he heard the door close he slowly opened his eyes to make sure no one else was there. Luckily there wasn't so he grabbed his head, why did they always have to drop him on the floor, couldn't they lie him down? After the pain became less intense he started to look at his surroundings, his dad was finding it hard to find a way to escape from the other room but maybe this one would be easier. If he could find some way to escape…what would he do? Should he just run, run and hope he could find help? But as soon as they knew he was gone what would they do to his dad and Michelle? He could just hope they brought them here or he could try and get back to them? This was pointless, all of the options had crap results and there was no way to know which would be least damaging. Why did this have to happen? Why couldn't he have backed out? 

"_Come on mate," His dad said as he guided him towards the car. He__ didn't say anything, what was there to say? He was angry…Chappelle and Hammond shouldn't have been able to say what they had. But all he could think about was their words, how they stung in his ears and echoed though his mind. Luckily his dad didn't push the matter of what had been said since he knew if he told him the truth Chappelle would have a black eye by now. As they reached the car he realised just how much he wanted to go back home and crawl in his bed, hoping everything would just sort itself out. So as soon as he was in reach of the car he stretched his hand out to grab the handle but something blocked his grasp. As he looked to the handle he saw his dad's hand grab his._

"_We need to talk." His dad told him, while he kept his eyes to the ground, he didn't want to talk. He wanted to go home and forget about everything, he hated being manipulated and how much it had hurt to hear his mum be talked about._

"_I'm sorry…" It was his fault after all, nothing would change that fact.  
_

"_Mate we're past that ok," His dad told him and he felt his dad's hand move to his shoulder, "It's not your fault, I know what they're like,"  
_

"_Stupid, manipulative…"He started and that was him being polite._

"_Yeah and I can think of a few hundred others to describe them but that's not what we need to talk about," What else was there? It made him wonder so he raised his eyes from the ground to look at his dad…oh rules obviously._

"_I'll do what you guys say, I promise," _

"_I know, so here are the rules," His dad started while focused his eyes on anything other then his dad's stare, "One, don't go anywhere near Landon at all. If you see him you go in the other direction no matter what,"  
_

"_Ok," He agreed, after the way he'd been manipulated he wasn't planning to do anything Chappelle and Hammond wanted._

"_Two, don't go anywhere near his daughter and if you see her you definitely run in the opposite direction…"Why was it so much worse to be near Katherine then her dad, she wouldn't be involved would she?  
_

"_Why is Katherine so much worse then her dad?" He asked. He didn't understand, she wasn't dangerous and she probably had no idea what was going on or was he wrong, was he just completely clueless about everything?_

"_Because you're a teenager and hormone crazy…"_

"_Dad," He interrupted, he really didn't want this talk from his dad._

"_Trust me, you do stupid things when your hormones take over, go back to primal instincts sort of thing, you won't think rationally and seen as you already fancy this girl…"  
_

"_I don't," He didn't did he? It wasn't like he could deny she was hot but…that was it wasn't it, it wasn't like he actually liked her.  
_

"_What's Landon's name?"_

"_Landon,"_

"_Yeah smart arse, first name?" His dad asked. His mind just went blank, had they even been told him name? It didn't matter that much did it?_

"_I dunno, does it really matter?" He asked._

"_Fine his kid's name,"  
_

"_Katherine," He told him while looking at him like he was mad, what was his dad trying to prove?_

"_You've only been told her name once…"  
_

"_Doesn't mean I like her," He protested, he just had a good memory._

"_Ok, just stay away," His dad told him._

"_I will," He said, like he told them he would do everything they told him even if he was sure there was no point to it._

"_Good. Three any people who we tell you to stay away from…"  
_

"_I will and if I see them I'll run in the other direction," He finished for his dad, making him smile._

"_Well at least you'll remember that part," His dad told him while he just shook his head, "Four. You need to learn the cover stories and we'll test you on the way there tomorrow,"  
_

"_Ok," That couldn't be too hard could it?_

"_Five. You can't say anything about this to anyone at all no matter how close you become to them. You can't say anything in public and you may not be able to say anything at all while we're there but we will check the place where we're staying. If it is bug free then you'll be able to talk about it there but only there. Otherwise when we get there you don't mention anything about your previous life other then what is in the file. You don't say anything about where we live, where relatives live, anything like that. You will be able to mention Conner but don't go into details about him or where he is ok," His dad explained and he nodded. That made sense and he would be very careful about what he did say._

"_Six. Don't draw attention to yourself in anyway. Just stay in the background. So no fights, no pranks…"  
_

"_Dad I won't," He wouldn't, he was going to be very careful about what he did no matter what happened._

"_Ok seven…" God this was long and he was sure he had forgotten half of it.  
_

"_Can I ask how long this list is?" He asked, unless his dad started writing it down soon he was sure he wasn't going to remember any of it._

"_Two more points. So seven. We're going to trust you while we're there so please behave and remember all I said,"  
_

"_Ok got it,"  
_

"_And finally when I say get out the apartment or whatever we're staying in you go out so me and Michelle can have some time…" That was just…just something he didn't need to hear.  
_

"_Oh God dad gross," He interrupted while his dad just laughed.  
_

"_Hey we just want time alone to…discuss the mission," That was a lie.  
_

"_Yeah right I bet you'll do all of two minutes talking before you do something else," He told his dad with a look of disgust in his eyes, it was just so wrong he was talking like that._

"_Well just remember that one, its important…"  
_

"_Please stop talking," He begged while his dad just laughed, at least that meant his dad wasn't to pissed off but still…he really didn't need to hear his dad talk about these things._

"_What's he done now?" Michelle asked and he looked up to see her walking over to them.  
_

"_Nothing," His dad said innocently. LIAR! But he knew if he said anything then Michelle would just gross him out even more. It was like the two of them took pleasure from creeping him out. _

"_Yeah well you can explain to me later," She said as she came to halt in front of them.  
_

"_I think I can do that," His dad smiled._

"_I'm now mentally scarred for life," He mumbled trying to think about something else._

"_Aww sweetie have you been creeping your son out," Michelle asked his dad while he looked back at them praying there wasn't more to come, "Well we better get going and here you go Tim, have fun reading," She said handing him one of the files in her hands.  
_

"_What?" He asked looking from her to the file and back again.  
_

"_Learn it, that is your…well our life,"  
_

"_All of this?" He really had no idea what was involved in the missions they took part in and this file, it was pretty big._

"_Yup enjoy," She smiled at him._

"_Oh good," He said rolling his eyes as he climbed in the car, this was going to be such a fun night now._

"_Well guess you two have got some reading to do," His dad said but he didn't look up he was to busy reading the first page._

"_Yeah joyous," He mumbled as he read the page. God they had everything about him here. After 30 minutes they were home, he spent the whole time reading and was almost done by the time his dad parked the car. He followed his dad and Michelle inside watching as his dad was bombarded, first by Jess who jumped onto him as soon as he entered the door and then by Conner who followed shortly after._

"_Daddy," Conner called out as he jumped up and down, sticking his arms out at his dad._

"_Hey Conner," His dad said as he picked Conner up._

"_Lisa?" His dad called out as he moved further into the house, he, Michelle and Jess following after._

"_Yeah one minute," Lisa yelled back. He just watched as his dad set Conner on the sofa and then walked off to find Lisa. As soon as his dad had disappeared he moved over to join Conner and sat down._

"_Oww," He said as Conner decided to jump on him, apparently the sofa was not as fun as causing pain to your brother._

"_Be good you two," Michelle said as she walked past them_

"_I'm always good," He said innocently smiling at her which made her roll her eyes._

"_Just don't damage anything," She told him as he looked back to Conner who was now sitting on him, staring at him._

"_What you looking at?" He asked while Conner just smiled at him, "Conner?" __Conner seemed to have decided against talking and just stayed staring at him._

"_Ok dude you're creeping me out now," He told Conner who hadn't even moved and Conner wasn't exactly known for being patient. _

"_Ice cream," Conner said._

"_What?" He asked, wondering what was going on._

"Want i_ce cream,"_

"_There's no way your mum's going to let you have any this close to your bedtime,"_

"Y_ou…"  
_

"_No way, do you know how much trouble I got in last time I gave you…" He stopped mid sentence as Conner pulled out a crumpled up letter from his pocket._

"_What's…" He started as he looked at the letter, "Oh God," He just had to look at where the letter was from to realise what it was about._

"_Ice…" Conner started._

"_Conner where'd you get this?" He asked as he snatched it out of Conner's hand. Conner didn't answer but shrugged his shoulders._

"_Does dad know about this?" He asked as Conner just shook his head._

"_Mich…your mum?" Again Conner shook his head. Well that was good, if they knew about this letter he would be in so much trouble, the chances were he probably wouldn't see day light in a while._

"_I want…"  
_

"_I know Conner just…let me put this somewhere safe," He said as he grabbed Conner and put him on the couch. He started towards his room but realised that his dad and Michelle and Lisa were in the kitchen._

"_Crap," He muttered as he turned back to see Conner jumping up and down on the sofa._

"_Conner," He said making Conner look to him, "Look mate if you don't tell dad and your mum about this I will…I'll get you that toy you wanted ok but I can't get to the kitchen now ok so…"  
_

"_Ok," Conner smiled happily._

"_Ok," He reassured himself as he walked back towards the sofa. Suddenly he felt something grab onto him._

"_Swing," Conner told him._

"_You won't say anything about…"  
_

"_No," Conner interrupted still clinging onto him._

"_Ok, ok," He said as he shoved the letter into his pocket and then grabbed Conner turning him upside down. Suddenly Conner screamed out._

"_Conner shh," He said but again Conner squealed out._

"_Tim put him down," Michelle said as he looked up to see her, hands on hips staring at him._

"_He wanted to," He told her, looking to his dad who was just smiling.  
_

"_Yeah well if he's sick then you get to clean it up," Michelle told him, which made him quickly turn Conner back up the right way. Good thing he hadn't given him that ice cream then._

"_Sorry Conner your mum's a spoilsport," He told Conner as he placed him on the sofa._

"_Mommy," Conner pleaded as he looked to see Lisa's face._

"_Whoa Lisa what happened to your face?" He suddenly burst out, that wasn't natural._

"_He did," Lisa said pointing to Conner. He looked to Conner who was standing on the couch smiling up at all of them._

"_It's a good look…" He started but then ran as Lisa headed towards him. He ran behind his dad and grabbed onto him, using him as a human shield._

"_Dad protect me," He said, keeping a firm grip on his dad who wasn't moving.  
_

"_No way," His dad said as Lisa got closer, "Here I sacrifice this one, now we're even," With that his dad grabbed him and pushed him in front._

"_Deal," Lisa said as she reached them. His dad held onto him as Lisa grabbed one of the pots of paint off the table and stuck her finger in it. This was not going to end well but that didn't stop him trying to struggle.  
_

"_Dad, come on. Please I'll do whatever you want…" He said __squirming; remembering that his dad was a lot stronger then he was and he had no chance of escaping his grasp._

"_Na it's ok Tim, like you said it's a good look," His dad smiled at him as Lisa rubbed the paint on his face. After she'd painted a few lines across his let go and he immediately ran off behind the sofa. There was no way she was going to do more to him._

"_Right well I better be off then," Lisa told them, wiping her hands on a cloth as she walked to the door before picking up her bag. _

"_See you tomorrow," His dad said as he walked over to her grabbing Conner on the way and placing him under his arm, which made Conner scream at. Meanwhile he stayed behind the sofa, just encase she suddenly turned on him._

"_And I get told off for doing that," He told them._

"_Yeah your point?" Michelle asked._

"_Not fair," He mumbled while Michelle just smiled at him._

"_Come on wimp," She whispered as she walked past him, leaving his jaw hanging down._

"_Bye guys. See you in the morning," Lisa said as she opened the door._

"_Bye," They all said and his dad closed the door behind her, before turning around to look at him._

"_Think you need to have a shower or something," His dad told him._

"_Smelly," Conner yelled out, what was this, gang up on Tim day? Never mind, at the moment Conner could say what he wanted seen as he had gotten the letter for him. He was certain Conner actually had no idea what it was about and was sure if he had been older he would have realised the potential blackmail material he had._

"_He always is," Michelle said as she took Conner from under his dad's arm, "Bed time,"  
_

"_No," Conner said, while he and his dad just watched. _

"_Yep, come on," She said as she headed to the stairs, Conner lying over her shoulder trying to escape her grasp._

"_Daddy," Conner yelled out._

"_Daddy to the rescue then," His dad smiled at him while just rolled his eyes and watched as his dad ran off after Michelle and Conner. He turned around and headed back to the sofa, turning on the T.V, knowing that they would be a while since Conner would make them read him a story. He flicked through the channels quickly, leaving it on some sitcom as he pulled out the letter and read it. _

_**Dear Mr and Mrs Almeida,**_

_**I am writing to you to ask you to attend a meeting about your son Timothy's progress at school and some incidents we have been alerted to…**_

"_What you got there?" He heard Michelle say and quickly he tried to shove it in his pocket, anywhere she wouldn't see but she grabbed it out of his hand. Shit!  
_

"_It's nothing, just about football matches…" He tried to lie, maybe she would buy it. As he turned round he saw her a few steps behind the sofa examining the letter._

"_Dear Mr and Mrs Almeida…it's from your principle. How is this about football?" She said scanning the paper as he put his hands in his head, he was so dead, "What incidents?"  
_

"_I dunno think they got the wrong person…" He said as he stood up and walked into the kitchen, maybe he could just hide out for a while._

"_Disruptive behaviour…" No such luck, he heard her voice as it got closer, while he pulled out the orange juice._

"_You know there's this Tim in my English…" He said turning to face her.  
_

"_Don't screw about this is obviously about you," She said as she waved the letter at him, taking a step towards him which made him step back. He felt his back hit the counter as he gripped the juice carton._

"_Um…"  
_

"_Attached is a copy of Timothy's report card, another matter we would like to discuss with you…"She read out and looked at him. Report card? He didn't know he was getting that otherwise he definitely would have intercepted the letter…but wait where was it? It wasn't in the letter; there was only that one piece of paper…Conner. Could he have really taken it out?_

"_Where is it?"  
_

"_I don't know," He said honestly._

"_Tim don't mess about, you somehow managed to get this without me or your dad knowing and as fun as it would be to have the fiasco of your teachers ringing us up asking where we are when we're supposed to be at some parent teacher meeting…"  
_

"_Chelle I swear I don't know where it is," He interrupted as she studied his eyes. _

"_Ok," Ok? Wait how could she tell he was telling the truth just from looking at him?_

"_You believe me?" _

"_Yeah. I can read you like a book, either that or you've learnt how to lie to me," She said as she put the letter down on the table._

"_Look I didn't even know about this until like 20 minutes ago, when Conner gave it to me…" Truth always worked…lessened the sentence._

"_Conner?" She questioned as she stood by the table, her hand resting on it by the letter. He just nodded, why was he afraid to move?_

"_I didn't know it was for…"  
_

"_It was addressed…"  
_

"_Ok…but apart from that I didn't know what it was and I don't know where my report card is," He just watched her as she thought about what to do._

"_I know where it'll be," She said. How would she know? "Conner's new hiding place," She turned away and started to head out of the kitchen. He needed to know where this place was and so started to follow her but suddenly she turned around._

"_You know what…I'll go get it, you can make dinner and then we can discuss it when your dad gets back from putting Conner to bed,"  
_

"_Oh come on Chelle that's just mean…dad's stressed like you said…so I mean we could wait until we get back to tell him…"He said while she laughed._

"_Let me see what the damage is first," She smiled at him and walked off, leaving him standing there. He quickly retreated back into the kitchen and decided to heat up the pasta they'd had the other day. After a few minutes he looked round to Michelle walking back the report card in hand and she looked…shocked._

"_How bad?" He asked as he moved over and took it from her._

"_I don't really know what to say," She said as she sat down while he quickly read through it._

"_Jesus," He said as he closed it and put it on the table and ran a hand through his hair, "You know maybe they did get the wrong Tim…this can't be me I mean I'm like a C… sometimes a B student…but not this, this can't be me…"  
_

"_Well you can't change it now," She said.  
_

"_I know but dad…"  
_

"_Well I think you're right…we won't tell him until we get back,"  
_

"_Yeah he'll probably have a heart attack," He said, he just couldn't believe, he'd never gotten grades like this before; he wasn't really sure how his dad would react, _

"_God what am I going to do?" He asked out loud and looked to see Michelle staring at him._

"_Well…"  
_

"_I mean what kind of college…with those grades…how the hell am I going to…"  
_

"_We'll cross that bridge when we get to it; anyway you still have time…" She tried to reassure him but it was too late he was panicked, "Tim,"  
_

"_Yeah,"  
_

"_Food," She smiled at him and he turned around._

"_Oh yeah," Quickly he went over and turned the stove off. _

"_I'll put this somewhere safe," She told him and wandered off to her room. He just grabbed a bowl and served up the pasta before setting it on the table. He then grabbed himself a fork and sat down. For some reason he wasn't really that hungry any more, maybe it was shock. He just played about with his food until he felt a hand on his shoulder._

"_It'll be ok…look you've got two weeks to pretend to be someone else so you don't even need to think about it until we get back ok," Michelle told him while he just nodded. For a few minutes neither of them spoke._

"_I see you got plates for us," Suddenly he looked up to face her._

"_Sorry,"_

"_Don't worry," _

"_It's gonna be weird isn't it," He said, not sure if he had meant it to be in his head.  
_

"_What is?" She asked turning to face him._

"_Not seeing Conner for two weeks," He couldn't imagine it. Sometimes he got annoying, everyone's little brother did but not seeing him for a whole two weeks when he'd seen him for nearly every single day for the past two years…that was going to be weird._

"_Yeah," Michelle said and then turned back to the cupboards; he just looked back at his food. Maybe she'd only just realised that._

"_He asleep?" Michelle asked, he looked up to see his dad walk into the kitchen. He didn't really listen to their conversation. He only looked up at them when they sat down with their food. While they ate none of them spoke and after 10 or so minutes he figured there was no point playing with the rest and so said he was going to pack and then go to bed. For the next two hours he packed and then read the file again, trying to remember it all, hopefully it would stick. When he looked round at the clock it was 11:00pm. He thought it would be a good idea to go to sleep seen as he was going to have to get up early, well early for him._

* * *

Ok now they had to think, there had to be something they could do. They were smart and they were trained, they could get out of this. 

"How are we in there?" They heard Paul yell through the door. Quickly they moved apart getting ready encase he decided to walk in.

"You son of a bitch, if you hurt him I swear…" Tony started.

"Calm down, we're just going to have a nice chat," Paul told them, yeah a nice chat which would probably result in some serious injuries.

"Don't you dare touch him," She yelled.

"Why would we want to do such a thing?" Paul said, "No if Tim doesn't tell us what we want to know there are other ways…I mean Tony would hate to watch another man do anything to you wouldn't he…I'm sure there's more then enough willing to give you a go"

"Over my dead body," Tony yelled out as he pulled her away from the door behind him.

"Well it may come to that," Paul said, "Anyway must be off some things for you to think about, the quicker you tell me what I want to know the quicker…"

"You kill us," She stated.

"Smart as well, you really know how to pick them," Paul said.

"You bastard, you wait till I get out of here!" Tony yelled at the door but there was no reply, Paul was gone. She felt sick, how could he just talk about her like that? He was having fun; this was just a game to him, a sick game.

_She was fuming as she walked along the corridor clutching the files tightly in her hands. She always hated office politics and the way Hammond manipulated people but what they did to Tim…she would never forgive Chappelle or Hammond for that. Before she'd always thought Chappelle was just following orders but he could have done something, he could have stopped Hammond or at least not taken part himself. Before she knew it she'd reached the car park. She spotted Tim and Tony standing by their car._

"_Please stop talking," She heard Tim beg while Tony just laughed. At least things didn't seem too bad_

"_What's he done now?" She asked, from the way Tim's face looked she was sure Tony had said something to gross him out.  
_

"_Nothing," Tony said innocently, that was a lie but she didn't feel like pushing it at the moment._

"_Yeah well you can explain to me later," She said as she came to halt in front of them.  
_

"_I think I can do that," Tony smiled while Tim just mumbled something about being mentally scarred._

"_Aww sweetie have you been creeping your son out," She asked Tony while he just smiled, it was fun to mess with Tim unfortunately she was still too mad from her encounter with Chappelle and Hammond to continue with it, "Well we better get going and here you go Tim, have fun reading," She said handing Tim one of the files in her hands.  
_

"_What?" Tim asked looking from her to the file and back again.  
_

"_Learn it, that is your…well our life,"  
_

"_All of this?" Yeah that had been her first thought when she was first sent undercover._

"_Yup enjoy," She smiled at him._

"_Oh good," Tim said rolling his eyes as he climbed in the car while Tony took her hand. Maybe he had __noticed the damage to the files from her grip on them._

"_How was it?" He asked. Definitely one of her top ten worst encounters with Hammond but then luckily she didn't have to deal with him much compared to Tony. She really had no idea how he put up with it._

"As it always is_," She breathed angrily._

"_I've explained to Tim, we'll be ok," Tony said trying to reassure her, she really hoped he was right…she wouldn't forgive herself if anything bad happened. _

"_Yeah. You want the scrambled phone?" She asked._

"_Sure," He said as she handed it to him and he slipped it into his pocket.  
_

"_Ask for Uncle Ryan," She sighed as she opened her door, now all she wanted to do was go home and try and relax before tomorrow._

"_Chelle we'll get through this and who knows maybe you'll be right," He told her while she just nodded and got in the car. They could get through this, it was simple. She had been on far worse undercover missions…but the worst one…that was supposed to be simple too…now it was just a reoccurring nightmare that haunted her dreams. She could still see Lucy's face as they tortured her…she still wasn't sure how things had gone so wrong…how they'd been captured…how Lucy had died but this wasn't like then…there was no way this could end so badly. She blinked the images away and opened the first file, she needed to learn this by tomorrow…she could do that._

"_Well guess you two have got some reading to do," She heard Tony say. _

"_Yeah," She sighed but she kept her focus on the file as she read through the first page. After 30 minutes they were home. As__ she walked through the door she saw Tony who was bombarded, first by Jess who jumped onto him as soon as he entered the door and then by Conner who followed shortly after._

"_Daddy," Conner called out as he jumped up and down, sticking his arms out at Tony._

"_Hey Conner," He said as he picked up Conner and kissed his head._

"_Lisa?" Tony called out as he moved further into the house, Tim, her and Jess following after him._

"_Yeah one minute," Lisa yelled back. Once Tony reached the couch he put Conner down and walked into the kitchen. She dropped her bag on the floor and hung her coat up._

"_Oww," Tim said, making her look round to see Conner standing on his brother._

"_Be good you two," She said as she walked past them, she wasn't in the mood for any of their games tonight._

"_I'm always good," Tim said innocently smiling at her which made her roll her eyes, he took after Tony far too much._

"_Just don't damage anything," She told him as she went to find Lisa and Tony._

"_Hey," She said as she came to stand by Tony and Lisa in the kitchen._

"_Hey…" Lisa started as she turned around. Oh dear God what the hell is that?_

"_What the hell happened?" She asked, trying to hide the fact she wanted to burst out laughing._

"_Your son," Lisa said as she returned to scrubbing her face._

"_Sorry Lisa," She said while Tony just kept laughing at her. She knew Lisa would make him pay for it later, but she couldn't believe what Conner had done or why Lisa had allowed him to. And as much as she just wanted to laugh at Lisa right now she felt a tiny bit bad and just let a massive grin play on her face instead. As she looked to Tony who was still laughing she saw the dishcloth land on his face. She just laughed as he grabbed the cloth and pulled it off._

"_Thanks," He said holding it in his hand while trying to rub away the water on his face._

"_We're not even yet," Lisa smiled at him while walking past them, still some paint on her face._

"_Uh oh," He said still smiling while she just shook her head, it was easy to tell they were related._

"_Tony," She said as she hit him lightly, grinning from ear to ear. At least she had some control. Suddenly she heard Conner scream and they quickly rushed to the living room to see Tim holding him upside down, swinging him around._

"_Tim put him down," She said placing her hands on her hips, normally she didn't mind but no doubt Lisa had given him ice cream and soon he'd be feeling sick if Tim continued._

"_He wanted to," Tim told her, that was probably true.  
_

"_Yeah well if he's sick then you get to clean it up," She told him, which made him quickly turn Conner back up the right way. She always knew the way to get Tim to do what she wanted._

"_Sorry Conner your mum's a spoilsport," Tim told Conner as he placed him on the sofa._

"_Mommy," Conner pleaded while she just shook her head, she'd thank Tim for that later when she found something for him to do._

"_Whoa Lisa what happened to your face?" Tim suddenly burst out._

"_He did," Lisa said pointing to Conner. She looked to Conner who was standing on the couch smiling up at all of them._

"_It's a good look…" Tim started but then ran as Lisa headed towards him. She just watched as he ran behind Tony and grabbed onto him, using him as a human shield. It was times like these she wished she had a video camera handy._

"_Dad protect me," Tim said, while she just laughed.  
_

"_No way," Tony said as Lisa got closer to them, "Here I sacrifice this one, now we're even," With that Tony grabbed Tim and pushed him in front._

"_Deal," Lisa said as she reached them. Tony just held onto Tim as Lisa grabbed one of the pots of paint off the table and stuck her finger in it. This seemed more then fair payback and she was so pleased Lisa was doing this. She couldn't help laughing more as Tim tried to struggle, of course failing miserably. There was no way he'd get out of Tony's grasp.  
_

"_Dad, come on. Please I'll do whatever you want…" Tim said still squirming._

"_Na it's ok Tim, like you said it's a good look," Tony smiled at Tim as Lisa rubbed the paint on his face. After she'd painted a few lines across his face Tony let go and he immediately ran off behind the sofa. She just shook her head, Tim was a wimp._

"_Right well I better be off then," Lisa told them, wiping her hands on a cloth as she walked to the door and picked up her bag. _

"_See you tomorrow," Tony said as he walked over to Lisa grabbing Conner on the way and placing him under his arm, which made Conner scream at. _

"_And I get told off for doing that," Tim told them, directly looking at her. What was the fun if she couldn't have double standards?_

"_Yeah your point?" She asked._

"_Not fair," He mumbled while she just smiled at him._

"_Come on wimp," She whispered as she walked past him, leaving his jaw hanging down._

"_Bye guys. See you in the morning," Lisa said as she opened the door._

"_Bye," They all said and Tony closed the door behind her, before turning around to look at Tim._

"_Think you need to have a shower or something," Tony told Tim as she looked at Tim's face…it was definitely a new look._

"_Smelly," Conner yelled out._

"_He always is," She said as she took Conner from under Tony's arm, it was well past his bed time and she was sure he knew it, "Bed time,"  
_

"_No," Conner said._

"_Yep, come on," She said as she headed to the stairs, Conner lying over her shoulder trying to escape her grasp._

"_Daddy," Conner yelled out. She carried him up the stairs but for some reason Conner was deciding to be difficult tonight. As she reached the top of the stairs she turned to see Tony grabbing Conner off her shoulder. Tony could definitely have the pleasure of putting him to bed tonight, she didn't feel like having to be the bad guy again._

"_He's all yours tonight," She told him and turned to go back down stairs, she was tired and having to fight Conner to go to sleep was the last thing she wanted to do. Normally he was a lot more co-operative…no doubt Lisa had given him something containing sugar which would explain why he was so lively._

"_Night mommy," Conner called out as she placed her hand on the banister._

"_Night sweetheart," She smiled as she walked down the stairs. As she reached the bottom of the stairs she saw Tim had put the T.V. on but the angle of his head meant he was certainly not watching it. Slowly she moved over to him and looked to see what he was staring at, hopefully it was something innocent like a T.V. magazine…she didn't feel like having to yell or punish Tim in anyway. But something told her that whatever he was reading was likely to cost her some sort of attention. As she peered over she saw it was a letter of some kind._

"_What you got there?" She asked as she grabbed it out of his hand. She wasn't a particularly nosey person but experience taught her to look at a letter if it had grasped Tim's interest for more the 30 seconds because the odds were it would be a letter she would have to deal with and it was best to see it before he could hide it and make something up.  
_

"_It's nothing, just about football matches…" He started as she read the top of the letter, moving a few steps behind the couch._

"_Dear Mr and Mrs Almeida…it's from your principle. How is this about football?" She said scanning the paper as she continued reading, "What incidents?"  
_

"_I dunno think they got the wrong person…" He said as he stood up and walked into the kitchen, oh he was so dead. She continued reading_

_**We would like to address some matters reported by several staff members…**_

"_Disruptive behaviour…" She started following after him._

_**He has been warned on several occasions but unfortunately the message has not seemed to sink in. Therefore we would like to invite you to…**_

"_You know there's this Tim in my English…" He said turning to face her. Like she was going to believe that.  
_

"_Don't screw about this is obviously about you," She said as she waved the letter at him, taking a step towards him which made him step back towards the counter. He would spill everything soon enough…CTU training did have some extra uses._

"_Um…"  
_

"_Attached is a copy of Timothy's report card, another matter we would like to discuss with you…"She read out and looked at him. Report card…no wonder he'd taken it, hopefully it would have improved from last time. It wasn't like he was getting particularly bad grades or anything, he was an average student who was very good at sport but according to some teachers he could be doing a lot better in certain areas._

"_Where is it?" She asked. How had he gotten this before her and Tony?  
_

"_I don't know," He said._

"_Tim don't mess about, you somehow managed to get this without me or your dad knowing and as fun as it would be to have the fiasco of your teachers ringing us up asking where we are when we're supposed to be at some parent teacher meeting…"  
_

"_Chelle I swear I don't know where it is," He interrupted as she studied his eyes. Wow he was telling the truth, she'd learnt to read him along time ago._

"_Ok," _

"_You believe me?" He said obviously in shock._

"_Yeah. I can read you like a book, either that or you've learnt how to lie to me," She said as she put the letter down on the table. And now comes the truth because he thinks it lessens his punishment._

"_Look I didn't even know about this until like 20 minutes ago, when Conner gave it to me…" Conner? Conner knew about this…Conner had gotten this letter and managed to hide it….he was only two well closer to three but still._

"_Conner?" She questioned as she stood by the table, her hand resting on it by the letter. He just nodded._

"_I didn't know it was for…"  
_

"_It was addressed…"  
_

"_Ok…but apart from that I didn't know what it was and I don't know where my report card is," Well if that was all true that meant for some reason Conner had hidden it and luckily she knew Conner's new hiding place. _

"_I know where it'll be," She said, while Tim just looked at her confused, "Conner's new hiding place," She turned away and started to head out of the kitchen but she heard footsteps following her. Seen as he would now be ready to suck up big time she decided to give him a little task while she went to retrieve his report card. Suddenly she turned around to face him making him stop dead in his tracks._

"_You know what…I'll go get it, you can make dinner and then we can discuss it when your dad gets back from putting Conner to bed,"  
_

"_Oh come on Chelle that's just mean…dad's stressed like you said…so I mean we could wait until we get back to tell him…"He said while she laughed. Tim knew there was no way Tony wouldn't find out about this…but he did have a point. This wouldn't exactly help distress Tony unless it was amazingly good but even so the fact that Tim's teachers wanted to meet wouldn't help at all._

"_Let me see what the damage is first," She smiled at him and walked off, leaving him standing there. First she'd read it__, find out what to expect in a reaction from Tony and then decided whether to tell him now or after they got back from the mission. She walked straight to the place and bent down pulling out a few toys as well as Tim's report card. She just left the toys on the floor and opened Tim's report card. Quickly she scanned through the predicted grades and comments from certain teachers. Oh God! She headed back to Tim, he was right maybe now was not the time to tell Tony, seeing as once he'd seen this he'd also want to see the letter and…it was just best not time to tell him yet_

"_How bad?" Tim asked as he moved over and took it from her._

"_I don't really know what to say," She said as she sat down while he quickly read through it. She really didn't._

"_Jesus," He said as he closed it and put it on the table and ran a hand through his hair, "You know maybe they did get the wrong Tim…this can't be me I mean I'm like a C… sometimes a B student…but not this, this can't be me…"  
_

"_Well you can't change it now," She said.  
_

"_I know but dad…"  
_

"_Well I think you're right…we won't tell him until we get back," Hopefully that would calm him down a bit.  
_

"_Yeah he'll probably have a heart attack," Tim said, while she watched him. He was in some sort of shock, she was sure, "God what am I going to do?" He asked as she just stared at him, yep definitely shock._

"_Well…" She just needed to calm him down.  
_

"_I mean what kind of college…with those grades…how the hell am I going to…"  
_

"_We'll cross that bridge when we get to it; anyway you still have time…" She tried to reassure him but it was too late he was panicked, "Tim,"  
_

"_Yeah,"  
_

"_Food," She smiled at him and he tur__ned around. Hopefully taking his mind off it would make things better._

"_Oh yeah," Quickly he went over and turned the stove off. _

"_I'll put this somewhere safe," She told him and wandered off to her room, putting it safely in her bottom draw. As she came back out she saw Tim hunched over his food obviously not eating it. She placed her hand on his shoulder, trying to reassure him._

"_It'll be ok…look you've got two weeks to pretend to be someone else so you don't even need to think about it until we get back ok," She told him while he just nodded. For a few minutes neither of them spoke. She moved over to the dishwasher and started unloading all of the contents. Once she was finished she looked to the table where Tim had just served the food for himself._

"_I see you got plates for us," Suddenly he looked up to face her._

"_Sorry,"_

"_Don't worry," He was distracted so she wouldn't make fun of him or anything like she would normally._

"_It's gonna be weird isn't it," Tim said, she had no idea what he was talking about.  
_

"_What is?" She asked turning to face him._

"_Not seeing Conner for two weeks," _

"_Yeah," She said and then turned back to the cupboards; how had she not realised this before? She wouldn't see her son for a two weeks…how was she goin__g to cope? And now she suddenly regretted not putting him to bed; she wouldn't get to do that for another two weeks. Maybe he wouldn't be asleep yet, she hoped he wasn't. She turned around about to head to Conner's room but then she saw Tony walk into the kitchen._

"_He asleep?" She asked, _

"_Yep and he knows that we're going tomorrow," He told her as he walked over to her. How had she forgotten that they hadn't told Conner they were going? And what was his reaction like? Was he sad that they were going or did he see as a fun holiday because he'd stay with Auntie Lisa?_

"_How did he take it?" She asked as she grabbed a plate and put it on the side, trying not to face Tony as he would be able to she her mental struggle immediately.  
_

"_He agreed on one condition," He told her as he wrapped his arms around her._

"_What was that?" She asked as she closed her eyes._

"_We buy him a really big present," He told her as he kissed he neck, which made her smile. That sounded like Conner and she couldn't blame him. As far as he was concerned they were just going away, he still had no idea of what they did and he had no idea that this was not technically a holiday. As far Conner would see, he got two weeks to eat junk food and do all the fun stuff with Lisa, who was known for spoiling her nephews rotten. After a few minutes Tony let go of her and they all sat quietly as they ate dinner. Once he was finished Tim left them alone to go pack._

"_It'll be ok," Tony told her as she continued to play with her food._

"_But I've never been a way from him for one night let alone two weeks,"_

"_I know, but it will be ok," He told her as he pushed his plate aside and walked over to her._

"_I'm not hungry anymore," She said as she got up and headed to their bedroom. He followed behind her and just sat on the bed as she started sorting out her clothes. She needed something to distract her._

"_You wanna talk about it?" He asked as she pulled out some tops from the wardrobe._

"_No…no I'll be fine," She told him, she wouldn't and he probably knew it but she didn't want to talk about it at the moment._

"_Ok," Luckily he had decided not to push the matter. After a few minutes of sorting out her clothes she turned to Tony who was still perched on the end of the bed watching her. _

"_You going to pack yours anytime soon?" She asked him._

"_Yes miss," He said as he bowed his head to her which made her smile._

"_Well you can grab the suitcase then," She said and indicated to their suitcase which was above the wardrobe just out of her reach. He nodded as he got up and grabbed it, placing it on the bed._

"_Thanks now go get your clothes," She told him._

"_What ever you say darling," He said as he kissed her cheek and then moved over to the draws and picked out his clothes. After half an hour or so they were packed and the suitcase rested by the doorway. She continued moving round the room making sure they hadn't left anything while Tony just __lay on the bed. Suddenly she saw the files on the cupboard, had Tony actually read these yet?_

"_You might actually want to have a look at these before we go," She told him as she chucked a file at him. Unfortunately he caught it just before it hit him in the head._

"_Will do," He said and flicked open the file. He spent the next hour or so reading, while she finished packing and checking everything was ready for tomorrow. After she was done she lay down next to him and reread one file, going over a few points._

"_All done," Tony said as he turned to face her.  
_

"_Ok," She said not lifting her gaze._

"_Any chance you're gonna be done soon?" He inquired as he got up and started changing for bed, which diverted her attention for a few seconds._

"_One minute," She told him and by the time he'd climbed back into bed she closed the file, "Ok done," _

"_Good now lets gets some sleep," He told her as she got up and changed into pyjama bottoms and a top. _

"_Perve," She laughed as she caught him looking at her._

"_It's a husbands right to look at his beautiful wife…"  
_

"_Starring with your mouth hanging open…" She started but he cut her off._

"_My mouth was not hanging open," _

"_Liar," She said as slid into bed next to him and kissed him. He started to kiss her back as he rolled on top of her. After a few moments she pushed him back._

"_We do actually have to sleep," She told him as he started kissing her neck, as much as she was enjoying this she knew they'd both regret it if they didn't get some sleep now "Tony,"  
_

"_Sleep can wait," He mumbled._

"_Tony it's…" She paused for a moment but he kept kissing her, "12:00am we need to sleep,"_

"_But…" He started._

"_Play your cards right tonight," She said as she pulled his face to hers and kissed him before rolling over leaving him breathless._

"_Deal," He told her as he wrapped his arms around her. That was easy._


	9. Chapter 9: Arrival

**Chapter 9 - Arrival**

For the next…God knows how long, he just stood there waiting, his eyes focused on the door just waiting for anyone to open it, anyone stupid enough to enter and allow him to pounce on them.

"Tony," Michelle called out. He looked round to see her sitting on the floor next to the window. Her legs pulled up to her chest and her arms wrapped around them.

"Yeah,"

"What are we going to do?" Beat the first person that entered the room to death, grab the gun and kill anyone in his way until he found his son, "Tony think rationally I know…"  
"You can't think rationally not when…not when they've got Tim and when they could be doing god knows what to him…" But he was cut off.

"Listen up!" Someone yelled. Quickly he moved his attention back to the door and got in position to grab them as they came in.

"We're coming in; if you try anything we will shoot you. So back away from the door now,"

"Tony," Michelle whispered forcefully as she moved over to him and grabbed his arm but he wasn't moving, "Tony come on,"

"You have 3 seconds left then we come in and before you can even swing a punch you'll be dead so just back away," Reluctantly he let Michelle pull him back, she was right after all. What use would he be to Tim if he got shot?

_It was just gone 10am when Tony reversed the car out of the driveway, waving at Conner before he stuck the car into first gear and put his foot down. 2 hours Chappelle had said it would take to get there but he obviously underestimated his driving skills, especially since CTU had given them one of the better cars in their collection, a BMW M5 Saloon to be exact. Anyway they were supposed to be quite well off and he was never going to complain when he got to drive a car he wouldn't normally have a chance at. By the feel of this car he was sure he could get them there in just over an hour if there weren't any crashes or road works in their way._

"_Suppose we'll have to stop for your breakfast sometime soon," He said as he looked in the mirror to see Tim, still half asleep in the back seat._

"_Don't care," Tim muttered, and although he couldn't actually see Tim he was sure he'd have his eyes firmly shut, trying to sleep._

"_You hungry?" He asked as he pulled the car to a halt at the red light. But he didn't get an answer and so looked over to Michelle who was staring straight ahead, _

"_Chelle?"_

_"Huh?" _

"_You ok?" He asked._

"_Yeah fine," Well that was a lie; something was up, she was obviously already missing Conner. Saying goodbye to him this morning was hard, he admitted that but he wasn't sure if that was the only thing on her mind._

"_We'll see him in no time," He tired to reassure as he squeezed her knee before looking back to the lights just in time to see them turn green. _

_After about 45 minutes they were over half way and so he decided to pull into the service stations, as in the last 10 minutes Tim had seemed to have woken up and mentioned that he was hungry._

"_So how much longer we got?" Tim asked as he looked for a place to park._

"_No idea but you know patience is a virtue," _

"_I can live without it," Tim told him while he just shook his head. Once the car was parked he and Tim climbed out but Michelle still sat in the passenger's seat staring out the window._

"_She ok?" Tim asked as he reached in his back pocket, it didn't seem so._

"_Yeah, yeah she's fine," He said as he opened his wallet, it seemed he and Michelle needed to talk._

"_She doesn't look it," Tim said looking through the car window at Michelle who still hadn't moved. He just sighed as he took out the money and handed it to Tim, unfortunately he was right._

"_Just go get yourself something to eat and be back here in 10 minutes ok," He said, hopefully that would be enough time to sort things out._

"_Ok," Tim said and headed off towards the shops._

"_I'm expecting change," He said while Tim just nodded. As soon as Tim was far enough away he opened Michelle's door and bent his head down to look in. He called her name a few times but no reply._

"_Earth to Michelle," He said, "Chelle,"_

"_Huh?" She said as she finally noticed him and turned her head to face him._

"_Let's get some coffee," He told her, at least this way she couldn't use the excuse she was just tired._

"_I'm not…"  
_

"_You are," He said as he grabbed her hand. She just looked him but he wasn't letting go until she got out. He knew she got the message but she wasn't budging either._

"_Come on, do I really have to carry you?" He asked.  
_

"_Don't you dare," She said while he just smiled._

"_Then will you please get out the car and come and get some coffee," She just sighed as she got out and closed the door._

"_Thank you sweetheart," He said as he locked the car._

"_You know you're going to have to grovel big time if you want any tonight," She told him and walked off, heading towards the shops. Oh that was just mean. Quickly he caught up to her and wrapped his arm around her waist._

"_You know you want it just as much as I do," He whispered to her and watched as a small smile crept across her face._

"_We'll see," She said as they entered the coffee shop. He decided not to push her to talk until they had sat down with their drinks._

"_So?" He started knowing that there no way she'd just come out with it._

"_I'm fine just a bit tired," She told him, keeping her focus on the coffee cup in her hands. Tired excuse…he knew she'd use that. Next would be the denial, then gradual explanation until it was all out in the open…hopefully she'd skip out the anger stage this time. It normally came hand in hand with denial and now he realised getting her hot coffee that could be used as a weapon may have been a mistake._

"_So it's just the missing Conner thing right?" He asked as she looked up to him._

"_I'm fine so…"  
_

"_Nope,"  
_

"_What?"  
_

"_I'm not going to leave it…"  
_

"_Yes you are, it's nothing I can't handle…I'm fine," She told him, and that was denial._

"_Honey," He started but she cut him off._

"_Look I miss him ok, I've never been away…well properly away from him before ok so…I'll be fine, it's just weird adjusting to not seeing him…"  
_

"_Ok," He said, that was a quick jump from denial to the truth._

"_Look I'm ok, just please don't go on about it…I just need to find something to take my mind off it…"  
_

"_I think I can help there," He smiled at her while she just rolled her eyes and drank her coffee. _

"_Oh so generous of you,"_

"_I know…so I'll leave it but if you want to talk about it…"  
_

"_You'll be there, it's as if we've done this before," She told him while he just laughed._

"_Ok, ok…so about this present you said…" He started, knowing it would be the way to cheer her up._

"_Is that all you think about?" She smiled as she took another sip._

"_Well I can't help it since you put the idea in my head," He said innocently, wondering if it would be as good as what she had gotten him for his birthday. That was something he would never forget._

"_Guess you'll just have to wait and see," She told him._

"_Just a little clue?" He asked and waited while she thought about what to do._

"_Guess I could," She smiled but didn't say anything._

"_Wha…" He started but then felt her foot sliding up his leg._

"_Hey," Suddenly he slammed his leg against the table as he turned to see Tim standing next to him._

"_Hey Tim," Michelle smiled as she got up, "Ready to go?" She looked at him smiling while he rubbed his leg, she would pay for that._

"_Come on," He said as he got up and headed to the car._

_After another 30 minutes or so they reached their destination. During the time they had made sure they had gotten their cover stories straight, making sure Tim knew what people could ask him but telling him to avoid any situations if possible. Once they arrived they passed through a few security checks, showing their invite and proof of ID. Then they were given a set of instructions to get to the apartment where they would be staying. After a few minutes of driving at 5mph they arrived at their new home._

"_Looks pretty nice," Michelle said as he pulled the car up along side the sandy coloured building, identical ones running all along the street they were in and no doubt everywhere else._

"_Yeah," He said as he got out, "Sure this is the right place?" _

"_Yep 54 see," Michelle said as she moved over to him, pointing at the numbers on the bottom door, as he looked around he could see some stairs off to the right and up to the top apartment._

"_I'll get the bags," He said but before he could move Michelle had grabbed his hand, pulling him towards the door._

"_Don't you want to see what it's like first," Personally he wasn't that fussed, as long as it contained a bed, shower and T.V he was happy and from the looks of this place it would._

"_Ok," He said following to Michelle through the door which Tim had already unlocked. As he moved into the small corridor he first looked left to see one door, then right which led straight into the living room. As he moved further in he saw the kitchen which was now on his left, the living and dinning area straight ahead and on his right two doors._

"_Found my room," He heard Tim call out and moved backwards to the small corridor and to the door which had been on his left._

"_Oh hell no," He said as he walked through the door, this was definitely going to be his and Michelle's room._

"_What I called it first," Tim smiled, while he looked around the room. In the centre was a king sized bed, closets ran along the right wall while next to him on the left was a chest of draws on which sat a small T.V, then just past it was another door. _

"_And I have the money," He said which made Tim reconsider his decision._

"_Fine," Tim sighed as he retreated out of the room, while he moved over to the door. He opened it to reveal a bathroom, as he moved in his eyes darted straight towards the shower which was definitely built for two. He smiled as he thought about the fun he and Michelle could have with that._

"_Yep this is our room," He heard Michelle say, "Don't get any ideas," She laughed as he turned round to face her._

"_Too late," He smiled while she shook her head._

"_Well while you fantasize I'll go find out where we've got to park the car and try and get a map of this place, I saw an information desk just down the end of the street,"  
_

"_Consider it done," He smiled._

"_Feel free to go and unpack if it's not to much hassle, I know how important fantasizing about me is," She had no idea. After a minute or so he moved into the living area to find Tim in front of the T.V. _

"_Feel free to help me unpack," He said as he grabbed the remote from Tim's hands and flicked the T.V off._

"_Was just testing it," Tim smiled._

"_So kind of you," He said as they moved back to the front door. They moved over to the car and started getting the bags out._

"_Hey how come Chelle doesn't have to help? She brought more crap then us,"_

"_Think the word you wanted was luggage," He laughed as he took bag out of the boot._

"_Same thing," Tim told him as he grabbed another bag and followed him inside. He went straight to his and Michelle's room and placed the bag by their bed before heading back out only to hear the sounds of the T.V._

"_Tim," He called out as he moved further in._

"_Just wanted to check the scores, you'll never guess what…"_

"_What?"  
_

"_Cubs are winning," Tim told him as he hurried over, the unpacking could wait if this was true._

"_You're kidding,"_

"_Yep," Tim laughed and ran out._

"_Very funny," He muttered as he checked the scores himself. After a few minutes he found what he was looking for…he was better off not knowing. Quickly he turned the T.V. off and headed to the fridge, maybe they would have left them complementary beers. No such luck, he'd have to find a shop or something. He knew he'd better finish unpacking otherwise Michelle would not be best pleased and so headed back outside. As he moved further out he saw Tim talking to another boy, he may have been the same age or slightly older it was hard to tell how old they really were at that age._

"_Tim any chance of you helping," He said causing Tim to turn round as he grabbed the bag on the floor._

"_Uh yeah sorry," Tim said as he walked back in side, no doubt as soon as he was gone Tim would be back to talking to his new friend. He quickly put the bag in his room before heading back outside just in time to see Michelle walking towards them._

"_Hey you get the map?" He asked as Michelle came to a halt in front of him._

"_Yep here" She smiled as she handed it to him; he opened it as started looking at the layout, God this place was huge._

"_Tim," He heard Michelle call out and turned to look at them as Michelle walked over to Tim and the other boy, who both looked slightly in shock._

"_Going to introduce us or…" Michelle started.  
_

"_Uh yeah Jake…" Tim started._

"_Michelle," She said as she moved over to Jake, her hand extended. As he looked at Jake he saw him take a deep breath, still his eyes wide open staring at her. Oh good Jake had a crush on his wife._

"_Uh…" Was all Jake managed as he shook her hand. He just shook his head, he knew what she was doing, she knew what she was doing, heck most people probably knew what she was doing…that was apart from Jake. He'd let her have her fun but it was slightly cruel, she knew the effect she had on guys and this was a prime example. _

"_Nice to meet you," She smiled at Jake while he just smiled, the kid was speechless but then he didn't blame him, she'd left him speechless many times._

"_Yeah…I uh…I should go," Jake said, retreating quickly to his apartment. He did feel slightly sorry for the kid now._

"_That was cruel," He said as he moved to the boot of the car and grabbed the last bag._

"_Worth it," Michelle said as she moved to the car and closed the boot._

"_You did that on purpose," Tim said as he moved over to them. Guess it had scared Tim as much as that other kid._

"_Me? Never," Michelle said innocently while he tried to hide his laughter._

"_I'm never going to underst__and women," Tim said as he handed Tim his bag._

"_Trust me no man ever will," He told him as they headed towards the apartment. The rest of the day went rather quickly. They unpacked, laid around the apartment for a while, before going out to dinner. Although when they got back things got a lot better. Michelle kept her promise from the night before and he'd managed to try out one of the ideas that had popped into his head involving the shower. So by 12.00 am they were both curled up in the bed, after one hell of a work out._

"_We've gotta do that again," She smiled up at him._

"_Oh yeah," He'd happily volunteer for that anytime. After another five minutes or so, he was sure Michelle was asleep. He tried himself but his mind kept wondering back to what had happened. Hopefully the sound of the shower had drowned out some of the noise; otherwise he was sure Tim would be complaining about how he was going to need years of therapy or something alone those lines. But if he was honest with himself he really didn't care and he just couldn't wipe the smile off his face as he drifted off to sleep. _

* * *

After a few minutes he realised there was definitely no way out of the room, it contained no windows at all, no means of escape apart from one door which was no doubt guarded. As he looked round the room he suddenly noticed the stain on the floor by the single chair in the room, a chair which was no doubt to tie him to. Slowly he approached the mark, even though he knew what it was…the reddish colour now a permanent part of the stone floor. He needed to do something…he wasn't safe here and he knew it…he needed…a weapon of some sorts. Unfortunately there wasn't exactly much to go on. The only other things in the room were an old wooden table and a set of shelves which were pretty much empty…but not completely. As he moved over he examined the shelves, some rope…great if he actually had someone to tie up but it wasn't like he could actually use it as a weapon or could he? You could definitely strangle someone with it…but he'd have to over power them, stop them calling for help and pray there was only one person who entered. And even if that was possible…could he actually kill? He'd never even thought about it before except that one time but…this was different…he'd knowingly be killing someone, they could be anyone and…strangling. Pulling a trigger was hard but physically strangling someone, while they claw at your hands, begged you to stop…while you watch them slowly and painfully die…how could he do that? 

_Tim wasn't really sure what time it was when he had been forced out of his bed, whatever time it was it was not one he was accustomed to. After he'd managed to get dressed, he grabbed his bags and dragged them to the car. He'd mumbled goodbyes to Conner and Lisa, who were too lively for his likely and then slumped into the back seat. He just closed his eyes and rested his head back, trying to make up for the lost time, as the car pulled away from their house._

"_Suppose we'll have to stop for your breakfast sometime soon," He heard his dad say while he just kept his eyes firmly shut…he really didn't care at the moment._

"_Don't care," He muttered, hopefully they'd let him rest for the rest of the journey. He was sure after that he'd fallen asleep, either that or he blocked out everything else that happened._

_When he woke up he looked to his watch, 11 that wasn't bad. He looked round to see cars on both sides, speeding along the highway._

"_Ok I'm up now," He announced as he peered over to the front to see if he could see any signs for a service station, he was pretty hungry and it was about the right time for breakfast._

"_Thanks for telling us," His dad told him._

"_We got anything to eat?" He asked, maybe they would have brought some crisps or something with them._

"_Funnily enough we decided to have breakfast before we came and we thought we might be able to go 2 hours without food,"_

"_Well now really is my breakfast time," He told his dad; he should know this by now._

"_Suppose you can't hold on till we get there," His dad told him._

"_Not unless you want me to starve," He said pretending to be hurt._

"_Think you can hold on another few minutes?" There was the sarcasm._

"_I'll try and hold on," He smiled as he leant back and turned to see where they were…he had no idea seen as his sense of direction was…well nonexistent._

"_So how much longer we got?" He asked as his dad drove into the car park._

"_No idea but you know patience is a virtue," _

"_I can live without it," He told his dad as he undid his seat belt. Once the car was parked he and his dad climbed out but Michelle still sat in the passenger's seat staring out the window. That was kind of weird and she hadn't even said anything the whole journey, well the part of which he'd been awake for. Something must be wrong._

"_She ok?" He asked looking through the window at her._

"_Yeah, yeah she's fine," His dad said, yeah like he believed that._

"_She doesn't look it," He said still looking at her, she hadn't even moved, that was weird. As he turned back to his dad he handed him some money…he'd let his dad handle Michelle, his stomach already dictating what he was going to do. _

"_Just go get yourself something to eat and be back here in 10 minutes ok," His dad said, he was not about to argue._

"_Ok," He said and headed off towards the shops, clutching the money in his hands._

"_I'm expecting change," His dad called out while he just nodded. His dad never said how much change he wanted…it was just too easy. After a few minutes he found himself something to eat and a drink. He was going to head back to the car but as he saw the coffee shop he knew that's where they'd be, they couldn't go a few hours without it. After a few moments of looking around he spotted them sitting at a table and headed towards them._

"_Hey," He said as he came to halt by his dad, who slammed his leg against the table, maybe he'd had a bit too much caffeine already seen how jumpy he was. _

"_Hey Tim," Michelle smiled as she got up, "Ready to go?" He just looked to his dad who looked slightly annoyed._

"_Come on," His dad said as he got up and they headed to the car._

_After another 30 minutes or so they reached their destination. During the time they had made sure they had gotten their cover stories straight, his dad and Michelle constantly checking every detail over and over again. Once they arrived they passed through a few security checks, showing their invite and proof of ID. Then they were given a set of instructions to get to the apartment where they would be staying. After a few minutes of driving at 5mph they arrived at their new home._

"_Looks pretty nice," Michelle said as he looked out the window, it sure did. _

"_Yeah," His dad said while he got out of the car and headed straight for the door, leaving his dad and Michelle behind. Quickly he moved over to the door and unlocked it, well the key fit so that was a good sign. He moved into the small corridor and headed straight to the door on his left. Wow! This was definitely his room, although he knew his dad and Michelle may think otherwise._

"_Found my room," He called out, after a few moments his dad appeared through the door._

"_Oh hell no," His dad said as he walked through the door, he knew they'd do that._

"_What I called it first," He smiled as his dad took in the room; it was always worth a shot._

"_And I have the money," That was a point on which he could never win._

"_Fine," He sighed as he retreated out of the room and went to find his. He moved through the corridor, passing Michelle, who seemed to be a lot better then before and to the first door on his right. It wasn't too bad, of course it was no where as good as the other room but it would do. The bed lay up against the wall, on the opposite side to the door with a window hanging over it and a chest of draws stood at the end with a T.V position perfectly for viewing in bed. Then there was a wardrobe next to the door on the right hand side and a small table next to the bed with a lamp. He was sure he would manage with this._

_As soon as he was done checking out his room he moved out to the living room and headed straight for the couch, picking up the remote on the way. Quickly he flicked it onto the sports channels as he sat down._

"_Feel free to help me unpack," His dad said as he grabbed the remote from his hands and flicked the T.V off._

"_Was just testing it," He smiled._

"_So kind of you," His dad said as they moved back to the front door. They moved over to the car and started getting the bags out. Now he wondered where Michelle was, he only brought two bags compared to her ten or how many there were._

"_Hey how come Chelle doesn't have to help? She brought more crap then us,"_

"_Think the word you wanted was luggage," His dad laughed as he took bag out of the boot._

"_Same thing," He told his dad as he grabbed another bag and followed him inside, he quickly dropped off his bag in his room before heading back to the T.V. He just needed to see the scores then he'd help._

"_Tim," His dad called out as he turned to see him. Suddenly an idea popped into his head…he just had to do it._

"_Just wanted to check the scores, you'll never guess what…"_

"_What?"  
_

"_Cubs are winning," He told his dad causing his dad to hurry over to him. He just had to stop the smile on his face for a bit longer._

"_You're kidding,"_

"_Yep," He laughed and ran out before his dad had time to do anything. He knew his dad would find a way to repay him for this but he just couldn't help himself. _He_ moved back to the car, grabbing another bag and setting it on the floor. Just as he was about to turn back to the car he saw something out of the corner of his eye. He quickly swung his whole body round and put out his hands out, grabbing the ball moments before it hit him._

"_Sorry man," He heard a voice say and moved the ball out of his line of vision._

"_Uh don't worry bout it," He said lowering the ball as the boy moved over to him._

"_I'm Jake by the way, not very good at shooting," Jake smiled as he handed the ball back to him. Jake was a few inches taller then him, his head covered in light brown hair, his eyes green and his skin pretty pale. He looked about his age, possibly a bit older. Maybe he would have someone to hang out with after all. _

"_Tim and it's fine," He said._

"_So guess I'm your neighbour," Jake told him, while he just looked around._

"_Yeah," He couldn't see any of Jake's family; maybe he was dragged here by his parents?_

"_So you got any younger brothers or sisters or you only here by yourself,"_

"_One brother but he's not here, you?"  
_

"_Two little sisters, joy," Jake said while he just smiled._

"_Tim any chance of you helping," He turned round to see his dad grabbing the bag he'd put on the floor._

"_Uh yeah sorry," He said as he watched his dad walk back in side._

"_Your dad I take it," Jake said._

"_Yeah, they seem to like making me do everything,"  
_

"_Ah my parents are the same, seen as I'm the oldest and the boy," Jake told him, "Not all bad though, they still haven't learnt any good punishments or where to draw the line,"  
_

"_Lucky you," He said._

"_Oh damn she's hot," Jake said, now facing the in the other direction, his mouth hanging wide open. He moved slightly to see who Jake was looking at but he couldn't see anyone who was obviously as Jake described as 'hot'._

"_Who?" He couldn't help but ask._

"_Uh over there, the really hot one walking toooooowarrrddsss…us," Jake whispered and finally managed to get out. He just watched as she walked past them and over to his dad, this was weird._

"_Hey you get the map?" His dad asked as Michelle came to a halt in front of him._

"_Yep here" She smiled as she handed it to him._

"_You mean," He started as he turned to face Jake._

"_Tim," Michelle called out as he stood slightly in shock. Although he wasn't sure why, he knew loads of guys liked Michelle…he just found it weird seen as she was his step mum._

"_Going to introduce us or…"  
_

"_Uh yeah Jake…"_

"_Michelle," She said as she moved over to Jake, her hand extended. As he looked at Jake he saw him take a deep breath, still his eyes wide open staring at her._

"_Uh…" Was all Jake managed as he shook her hand. He just stood there watching the two of them, wondering if Michelle knew what kind of effect she had on teenage boys or in fact any men._

"_Nice to meet you," She smiled at him. He just looked past to see his dad smiling at the scene._

"_Yeah…I uh…I should go," Jake said, retreating quickly to his apartment. He just watched as Jake hurried inside before turning back to see Michelle still smiling._

"_That was cruel," His dad sad as he moved to the boot of the car and grabbed another bag._

"_Worth it," Michelle said as she moved to the car to help his dad._

"_You did that on purpose," He mostly stated as he moved over to them._

"_Me? Never," Michelle said innocently while his dad tried to hide his laughter._

"_I'm never going to understand women," He said as h__is dad handed him his bag._

"_Trust me no man ever will__," His dad told him as they headed towards the apartment._

_The rest of the day flew by, they unpacked, laid around the apartment before going out for dinner. Once that was over with it was pretty late and so he decided to lie in bed with the TV on while his dad and Michelle also headed to bed._

* * *

Slowly the door opened, the first thing she could see being a gun, followed by another and then the arms of the two men they belonged to. Carefully they moved into the room and took up their positions either side of the door and then another man entered. She hadn't seen him before, he looked about 30ish, olive skin, designer suit and his dark hair gelled back. 

"Right…"

"Where's Tim?" Tony yelled before the man could finish. She made sure she held onto him tightly so he wouldn't do anything stupid, he was right you couldn't think rationally in a situation like this.

"With Paul," The man said which made her stomach drop. That wasn't good; Paul was a psycho to put it simply. He wasn't smart, he wouldn't think ahead…he was like a kid just passing his driving test then taking the car and wreaking it except this, this was far worse.

"We need to talk," The man told them but nor she nor Tony spoke. She was sure Tony was still processing what he'd been told.

"Let Tim go and we'll talk, tell you what you want," She told them, there had to be some way to reason with them.

"Can't do that…so Michelle why don't you come with us so we can talk somewhere more…private," His eyes seemed to glow at the prospect and she felt Tony's arms push her further behind him.

_Michelle felt Tony's arm reach across her she buried her head back into the pillow, a few seconds later and the beeping subsided; no doubt Tony had hit the snooze button. She knew given a few minutes more and she would be back to sleep but just as she was about to drift off the alarm came back to life._

"_Alright, alright I'm up, "Tony sighed as again she felt his arm reach over to hit the alarm. She kept her face buried unwilling to admit she had to get up._

"_Come on Chelle," She heard him laugh as he climbed out of the bed._

"_I'm sleeping," _

"_Uh huh," She knew he was standing there, staring at her and probably figuring out some evil way to get her out of bed. But for the next minute or so she didn't hear anything and so pulled the covers up over her head, trying to get back to sleep. _

"_Come on," She heard Tony whisper._

"_Go away," She groaned resulting in laughter from Tony as he ripped back the duvet but before she had time to yell at him her face was covered with something wet. She opened her eyes just in time to see Jess' tongue lick her face for the third time._

"_Uh gross," She yelled as she shot up. As her eyes adjusted to the light she looked to see Tony standing at the end of the bed, "You are so dead," With that she jumped up and ran across the bed after him but he figured out what she doing and just before she reached him he ran out of the room. She followed him and managed to grab him at the end of the corridor, but he tried to continue running and so she jumped onto his back._

"_That's cheating," He laughed as he wrapped his hands round her legs keeping her securely on his back. But she wasn't bothered about talking at the moment as she leaned to the side picking up a cup full of water and poured it over Tony's head._

"_Now we're even," She whispered in his ear as they came to a halt in front of the couch. She couldn't stop a smile spreading across her face as Conner stared at them, she wasn't quite sure if it was fear or confusion or something else._

"_Hey mate," Tony laughed as he shook his head, spraying water on her._

"_Tony!" She screamed as she hit him. As she looked back Conner was still in the same position, staring at them. _

"_See if you'd just gotten up on time you wouldn't have just scarred our son for life," Tony said._

"_You are going to pay for this later," She told him._

"_That a promise?" He asked as he lowered her to the floor while she rolled her eyes. But then something popped into her head._

"_Conner who got you up?" She asked, because it wasn't her or Tony and…_

"_Morning guys," She looked up to Lisa Coming down the stairs._

"_God how much coffee have you had?" Tony asked._

"_Not much," Lisa said but the shaking of her hand said otherwise, "Well you see Jason called and we ended up talking for ages and then…"_

_"Ok I see I'm going to get bored with this conversation," Tony said as he moved over to Conner._

"_Tony don't be so…" She started._

_"What? I'm just gonna get this one ready," Tony told them as he grabbed Conner and headed up stairs._

"_So?" She asked._

"_Well he called and we ended up talking until like, well 5 am. So then I was like, you know. Why go to bed if I've gotta be up in like an hour anyways. So I packed my stuff and got ready then had some coffee and came here. And well got here at like um 6.30 so knew this one would be up to keep me company. So got him up and then took my stuff and unpacked and put him there and like well here we are," Lisa smiled._

"_Ok, just to clarify though far too much use of the word like there and when you say coffee you mean ten right," _

"_More like 5 and you can't tell me off for using it there, it was at least in context,"_

_"Well at least some of you is still there," She smiled._

"_I'm fine, with my job you get used to having 5 cups of coffee before you even start and I know you guys aren't too different," Lisa told her as she sat down, she did have a point._

"_Ok I'll leave you alone for a bit while I go get ready," She said and headed back to her room. Quickly she hopped in the shower but just as she was about to leave someone else entered._

"_You didn't wait for me!" Tony gasped, pretending to be hurt._

"_Serves you right," She smiled as she handed him the soap._

"_Not even gonna wash me?" He asked grinning from ear to ear._

"_Nope, you're a big boy, you can do it yourself," She smiled as she brushed past him out of the shower._

"_You're mean you know that," He called out as she wrapped a towel around herself. She just laughed a little as she moved into their room and got dressed. After that was done she went and had breakfast as well as feeding Conner before ending up outside Tim's room bashing on the door._

"_Tim get up its nine already!" She yelled bashing on the door again._

"_You're gonna need much more then that," Tony laughed as he walked past her._

"_You don't say," She said as she opened the door and headed in. Tim hadn't even stirred and was still sprawled out across his bed._

"_Tim!" She yelled but no response, "Tim get up now or…" But there was still nothing so she moved over to the curtains and ripped them apart allowing a bright beam of light to land over Tim._

"_Oww," Tim moaned as he pulled the covers up over his head._

"_You up now?"_

_"No," He mumbled._

"_Come on," She said as she grabbed the covers and pulled them off him, which resulted in more incoherent mumbling from Tim._

"_I hate you," He said as he rubbed his eyes._

"_Love you too," She smiled as she headed for the door._

"_What time is it?" He asked._

"_Ten past nine so get a move on," She told him as she left. Twenty minutes later and Tim emerged after showering and getting dressed._

"_Your dad's packing the car so you can take him your bags," She told him as she finished cleaning the kitchen._

"_Fine," He grumbled as he turned around to go back to his room. After another 10 minutes she was done and so headed to the couch to see Tim lying down, almost asleep again and Conner next to him watching the T.V. Then on the couch next to them there was Lisa, looking like the caffeine buzz might be wearing out._

"_Tim do you want anything to eat?" She asked._

"_No," He moaned._

"_Fine," She said as she headed out to see how Tony was doing. She helped him finish off packing the car before going back inside and saying her goodbyes to Lisa and Conner._

"_You be good yeah," She told Conner as she kissed him, "And no driving auntie Lisa mad ok," Conner just laughed as she kissed him again before handing him back to Lisa._

"_We'll be fine," Lisa told them._

"_We know," Tony said as he leaned over and hugged Lisa goodbye._

"_Wanna say anything Tim?" Tony called out as they looked to see Tim who was sitting in the car, trying to get back to sleep._

"_Later guys," Tim called out._

"_Guess that's the best we can hope for," Lisa laughed._

"_Yep, we'll call you if we can but any problems with Conner just call mum or dad or…"_

_"Tony I have looked after him before, I know what to do," Lisa said defensively._

"_Yeah I know just…"_

_"Just go have fun, we will," Lisa smiled. _

"_Ok we will," Tony said as they headed to the car. She climbed in the passenger's seat as Tony insisted he'd drive. She knew he only wanted to because CTU had to give them a new car so it couldn't be traced and since they were supposed to be well off, well it was a pretty nice car and Tony was just like a little kid with a new toy. She looked down at her watch as Tony reversed the new car out of the driveway. It was just gone 10. She looked out and waved at Conner and Lisa as they headed off. Once they were out of sight she was lost in thought about so many things. She kept trying to fit everything together, trying to figure out what they weren't being told…but she couldn't find anything, she just knew there was something. _

_Suddenly she heard her name being called, "Huh?" _

"_You ok?" Tony asked._

"_Yeah fine," Maybe she wasn't fine but her brain was racing, her thoughts kept jumping between the mission, Conner…she knew she'd see him in no time but well like Tony said they weren't being told something and…she was just over reacting she knew it. For the rest of the journey she couldn't switch her brain off, and it wasn't Conner she was thinking of, it was the mission, what if Tony was right…what if it was dangerous and…what if ended like the last mission, what if… _

"_Earth to Michelle," Tony said, "Chelle,"_

"_Huh?" She said as she finally noticed him and turned her head to face him. From the look on his face he was now pretty worried about her._

"_Let's get some coffee," He told her. She wasn't thirsty, she just needed some time to think, sort her head out._

"_I'm not…"  
_

"_You are," He said as he grabbed her hand. She just looked him but he wasn't letting go until she got out and she knew it but she still didn't want to move._

"_Come on, do I really have to carry you?" He asked.  
_

"_Don't you dare," She said while he just smiled._

"_Then will you please get out the car and come and get some coffee," She just sighed as she got out and closed the door, he was definitely more stubborn then she was._

"_Thank you sweetheart," He said as he locked the car._

"_You know you're going to have to grovel big time if you want any tonight," She told him and walked off, heading towards the shops. She knew he probably had a stunned look on his face but it was his own fault. Soon enough she felt his arm wrap around her waist._

"_You know you want it just as much as I do," He whispered to her and she couldn't stop a small smile creping across her face._

"_We'll see," She said as they entered the coffee shop, there may have been some truth in what he'd said. While they ordered Tony didn't say anything, however she knew it was coming when they sat down with their coffees._

"_So?" He started._

"_I'm fine just a bit tired," She told him, keeping her focus on the coffee cup in her hands. She knew it was stupid and she would figure it out by herself._

"_So it's just the missing Conner thing right?" He asked as she looked up to him, that was only a small part of it._

"_I'm fine so…"  
_

"_Nope,"  
_

"_What?"  
_

"_I'm not going to leave it…"  
_

"_Yes you are, it's nothing I can't handle…I'm fine," She told him._

"_Honey," He started but she cut him off, she didn't want him to know that she was thinking about the last mission it would just worry him for no reason and he didn't need that. So that's what she decided to just admit she missed Conner and hopefully he wouldn't realise there was anything else._

"_Look I miss him ok, I've never been away…well properly away from him before ok so…I'll be fine, it's just weird adjusting to not seeing him…"  
_

"_Ok," He said, he seemed to be buying it._

"_Look I'm ok, just please don't go on about it…I just need to find something to take my mind off it…"  
_

"_I think I can help there," He smiled at her while she just rolled her eyes and drank her coffee. _

"_Oh so generous of you,"_

"_I know…so I'll leave it but if you want to talk about it…"  
_

"_You'll be there, it's as if we've done this before," She told him while he just laughed._

"_Ok, ok…so about this present you said…" He started. _

"_Is that all you think about?" She smiled as she took another sip._

"_Well I can't help it since you put the idea in my head," He said innocently, which he definitely was not. But she was not about to spoil it, he was going to have to wait for it._

"_Guess you'll just have to wait and see," She told him._

"_Just a little clue?" He asked while she thought about what to do. As she looked up she saw Tim at the entrance to the shop, she just had to do it._

"_Guess I could," She smiled but didn't say anything._

"_Wha…" He started but then stopped as her foot slid up his leg._

"_Hey," Tim said causing Tony to slam his leg against the table while she tried to contain her laughter._

"_Hey Tim," She smiled as she got up, "Ready to go?" She looked back at Tony, trying not to laugh as he rubbed his leg._

"_Come on," Tony said as he got up and headed to the car._

_After another 30 minutes or so they reached their destination. During the time they had made sure they had gotten their cover stories straight, making sure Tim knew what people could ask him but telling him to avoid any situations if possible. Once they arrived they passed through a few security checks, showing their invite and proof of ID. Then they were given a set of instructions to get to the apartment where they would be staying. After a few minutes of driving at 5mph they arrived at their new home._

"_Looks pretty nice," She said as he pulled the car up along side it._

"_Yeah," Tony said as he got out, "Sure this is the right place?" _

"_Yep 54 see," She said as she moved over to him, pointing at the numbers on the door._

"_I'll get the bags," He said but before he could move she had grabbed his hand, pulling him towards the door._

"_Don't you want to see what it's like first?" She couldn't wait, for some reason she just had to see._

"_Ok," He said following her through the door which Tim had already unlocked. As she moved into the small corridor she first looked left to see one door, then right which led straight into the living room. Quickly she moved further in and saw the kitchen which was now on her left, the living and dinning area straight ahead and on her right two doors. She headed straight for the first door._

"_Found my room," She heard Tim call out but she carried onto the door. The first was a bedroom, with a single bed, so no doubt Tim's room. She then went to the next door which was a bathroom. She didn't spend to long looking around as she wanted to see her and Tony's room. Quickly she backtracked to the corridor and headed for the door on the left this time._

"_Yep this is our room," She said as she moved further in to see Tony in the doorway to the bathroom, "Don't get any ideas," She laughed as she saw the shower, knowing that's what had grasped his interest._

"_Too late," He smiled while she shook her head._

"_Well while you fantasize I'll go find out where we've got to park the car and try and get a map of this place, I saw an information desk just down the end of the street,"  
_

"_Consider it done," He smiled._

"_Feel free to go and unpack if it's not to much hassle, I know how important fantasizing about me is," She laughed as she headed out. After a minute or two's walk she got to the information desk and stood in the queue behind another man. After the receptionist was finished with him she approached the front desk._

"_How can I help?" The girl asked. She must have been about 20 and not much taller then herself._

"_Just wondering if you had a map of this place?" She asked as the receptionist reached behind the desk._

"_It's a pretty big place ain't it?" _

"_I'll say," She smiled back politely._

"_Anything in particular you're after?" The girl asked._

"_No, just thought it would be handy to have, I'm sure we'll be able to work it out," _

"_Ok well I'll just mark where we are," The girl said as she put a red x on the map, "And here is where you'll need to park your car,"_

_"That was going to be my second question," She smiled._

"_Well that's pretty much all I've been asked so far," The girl informed her as she handed over the map, "Anything else I can help you with?"_

"_Think I'm ok for now, thanks a lot," She said as she picked up the map._

"_Your welcome and if you need anything else feel free to come and ask," The girl told her._

"_Will do bye," She said as she left. After a minute of walking back, the apartment was in sight. She saw Tim was already talking to another boy, both of them staring at her but she didn't pay too much attention as she saw Tony emerge from the doorway._

"_Hey you get the map?" He asked as she came to a halt in front of him._

"_Yep here" She smiled as she handed it to him. As she turned back she saw __Tim and the boy were still looking at her, which was when it clicked why they were. _

"_Tim," She called out as she walked over to them smiling. She may as well have some fun with it, "Going to introduce us or…" _

"_Uh yeah Jake…" Tim started._

"_Michelle," She said as she moved over to Jake, her hand extended. As she looked at Jake he saw him take a deep breath, still his eyes wide open staring at her. He defiantly had a crush on her and she was sure she could see him turning red._

"_Uh…" Was all Jake managed as he shook her hand. She was trying her best not to laugh at this kid but he was utterly speechless._

"_Nice to meet you," She smiled at Jake while he just smiled, the reddish colour becoming more apparent on his face._

"_Yeah…I uh…I should go," Jake said, retreating quickly to his apartment, that was her job done and so turned back to face Tony. _

"_That was cruel," He said as he moved to the boot of the car and grabbed the last bag._

"_Worth it," She said as she moved to the car and closed the boot._

"_You did that on purpose," Tim said as he moved over to them. She wasn't sure what was more funny, the fact that Tim's new friend had a crush on her or Tim was oblivious to what she had just done._

"_Me? Never," She said innocently._

"_I'm never going to understand women," Tim said._

"_Trust me no man ever will," Tony told him as they headed towards the apartment. The rest of the day went rather quickly. They unpacked, laid around the apartment for a while, before going out to dinner. Although when they got back things got a lot better. She kept her promise from the night before and one of Tony's daydreams had been fulfilled, but she wasn't about to tell him that she was glad he did. By 12.00 am they were both curled up in the bed, after one hell of a work out._

"_We've gotta do that again," She smiled up at him._

"_Oh yeah," He said happily. She closed her eyes as her head hit the pillow, knowing she was extremely tired now and that she'd be asleep in a matter of moments._


End file.
